John J. Daly, 66, whose life was dedicated to public safety in Collier County, Florida, passed away August 22 at a Cape Cod, Massachusetts, hospital after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Starting in 1980, Daly was a 9-1-1 communications supervisor with the Collier County Sheriff’s Department. During the 1980s he was also an EMT with Collier County EMS. In 1989, he joined the City of Naples Police Department as communications manager until 1994 when the Collier County commissioners made the decision to build a countywide public safety radio system for all agencies. Daly successfully led that endeavor until his retirement from Collier County on June 1. He worked with adjacent counties and other agencies for interoperability with the Collier County system.

Daly’s passion was to assure that every deputy, police officer, trooper, EMS staff, firefighter and school safety personnel had 24/7 clear and effective communication.

Daly was a 30-year volunteer for APCO, performing radio frequency coordination for the state to ensure no private radio frequency requests would disrupt public safety use. Daly was a member of the Florida Chapter of APCO since 1990. He was an APCO AFC Advisory Committee member, 2010-2012, and he served as an AFC local advisor.

Daly is survived by his wife, Kelly and children April and Joel.

Charitable donations in Daly’s name are encouraged to World Central Kitchen (wck.org), PanCAN (pancan.org), or the charity of your choice.