Three former Erie County sheriffs gathered Monday for a reunion with the current sheriff and his classmates from the 1972 class of cadets, and the wisecracks, jokes and historical tidbits never stopped.

Even when it was time to get serious while posing for a photograph beside a portrait of Erie County’s most famous sheriff of all, Grover Cleveland, current Sheriff Timothy B. Howard insisted that 89-year-old ex-Sheriff Michael A. Amico stand closest to the august portrait of the one-time sheriff who was elected president of the United States in 1884 and again in 1892.

When Amico asked why, Howard, 59, said, “Because you’re closest in age to him.”

Retired Sheriff Thomas F. Higgins, 79, recalled attending classes in a room that once was used as the county morgue in the same building, 10 Delaware Ave., where the sheriff’s executive offices are now located.

“The floor was slanted to the center, where there was a drain and all of our chairs were on an angle; and if you fell asleep, you’d tipped over and fall on the floor,” Higgins said.

Undersheriff Richard T. Donovan, a former Buffalo police commissioner, reminded Amico that it was Donovan’s father- in-law, Buffalo Police Officer Francis Crawford, who was his driver when Amico worked for the city Police Department as head of the Motorcycle Division.

“I think he was driving you around in a Model T,” said Donovan, who then started winding a hand in the air as if to crank the engine.

Howard added it was a particular honor to have Amico present, since he presided over the 1972 Erie County Sheriff’s Training Academy class, of which Howard was a graduate.

After graduating, Howard served with the Gowanda Police Department and later with the State Police before serving as undersheriff for Sheriff Patrick M. Gallivan.

Part of the reason for the reunion, Howard explained, is that the building where the old sheriff’s training academy was housed, at 134 W. Eagle St., is scheduled to be demolished, and he wanted to bring as many old-time law enforcement officials and graduates from his class together one last time.

Gallivan, 49, who now serves as a commissioner on the state Parole Board and runs a private investigation service, recalled the historical significance of the elected office of sheriff.

“It started out in Europe and was brought over to the United States, and through all this time, with the advancing of the laws, the Sheriff’s Office has survived and remains the only office where the citizens have a say in who’s going to be their chief law enforcement officer,” said Gallivan, who was elected to two four-year terms. “It’s community policing in the truest sense.”

Charles T. Fieramusca, who ran against Howard four years ago for sheriff, happily announced, “I was never a sheriff,” but the former chief of the Buffalo police Homicide Bureau said Howard informed him that he was, in fact, the real winner of their contest “because I get to spend winters in Florida.”

All four sheriffs also took a moment to honor the memory of Sheriff Kenneth J. Braun, who died in 2002.

Other members of the cadet Class of 1972 attending the reunion were Samuel M. Palmiere, retired Town of Tonawanda police chief; Samuel V. DeJohn, retired Town of Evans police chief; and Patrick F. Puckhaber, retired Village of Angola police chief.