Where Are They Now?

A couple of years after Terry Early graduated from Dublin High School in 1982, he was working for his father, Larry Early, who owned the Texaco station in town at the time. One day at work, some Dublin police officers came in and asked him if he’d like to do a ride-along.

“At that point, I really wasn’t a fan of law enforcement because I was young, you know?” he said. “But probably 10 minutes into the ridealong I fell in love with it.”

In 1985, Early started school at the police academy. “I went at nights and on Saturdays,” he said. He worked as a reserve police officer for the Dublin Police Department from 1985 to 1986, when he was hired on as a full time officer.

He worked at the Dublin PD for over a decade, and during that time he helped out with police investigations, worked his way up to lieutenant, and even served as interim police chief before finally leaving the force in 1997.

After he left he spent a couple of years working as a butcher at the Granbury Walmart, and then went to work for a printing company in Dallas as a warehouse manager. “I was basically over shipping and receiving, and worked there for about 13 years,” he said.

Around 2011, the prospects of the printing company weren’t looking good, so Early decided to go back into law enforcement. He took a job with the sheriff’s department in Somervell County, and moved outside of Glen Rose.

His first position with the sheriff’s department was working at the jail. After two years, he went back out on the streets as a deputy, and then in 2014 he was promoted to detective. For the next few years he investigated arrests for anything between a class C misdemeanor and up to a first degree felony (including murder). “I really liked the investigation work, probably more than any part of law enforcement that I’ve done,” he said. “But you get to that point where you need to try something different, just because it’s so stressful.”

Since 2019, he’s been working at the junior high in Glen Rose as a school resource officer. His job includes walking the hallways, making sure doors are locked and everyone is safe. “I like working with the kids, and interacting with them,” he said. “And hopefully, you know, if I can save one kid from going the wrong way, I guess that would be fantastic.

Early plans to stay at his job for four more years, and then retire. “I’m hoping to buy a boat to do a lot of fishing,” he said. “I like to fish, hunt and ride four wheelers.”

He enjoys living in Glen Rose, and plans to stay. “It’s a beautiful town, and we have a lot to do here,” he said. “And I live out in the country, which is beautiful.”

Early’s son, Trenton Early, is 29 and lives in Glen Rose as well.

Early’s advice to Dublin graduates is to not doubt themselves. “You can do anything that you want to do, you can be anybody that you want to be,” he said.

Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@dublincitizen.com.