Anthony Fulwood, 72, a bodyguard for politicians

Anthony "Tony" Fulwood, 72, a longtime police officer and bodyguard for Mayor Frank Rizzo and other politicians who was remembered as a "gentle giant," died Wednesday at his home in Wynnefield after a seven-year battle with multiple myeloma.

About 6-foot-5 and close to 300 pounds, Mr. Fulwood cut a formidable figure. But his wife, Saundra Haines-Fulwood, 67, said he was a "gentle giant" who would "give you the shirt off his back."

Mr. Fulwood lived for his work, she said, which included being a bodyguard for former Philadelphia District Attorney Ron Castille - who performed their wedding in 2009 - and Castille's successor, Lynne Abraham.

"For as big as he was, and as tough as he appeared, he just had a heart of pure gold," Abraham said. "Tony was famous for a lot of things, but he was really famous for being an all-around nice human being."

Mr. Fulwood was her bodyguard until he retired from the police department in 2007. Abraham, who is just over 5 feet tall, said with a laugh that she "didn't even come up to his belt buckle." He was an unwaveringly loyal presence, said Abraham, who will speak at the service Thursday.

Mr. Fulwood stayed so close to Rizzo that the mayor bumped into him, tripped, and broke his hip at a huge South Philadelphia refinery fire in 1975, big news at the time.

"Tony worked with my dad when he was police commissioner and then mayor, but their relationship was more like father and son," said Frank Rizzo Jr., a former city councilman.

In 1983, Mr. Fulwood and fellow Rizzo bodyguard James Turner - both African American - penned a letter to the editor of The Inquirer. Headlined "Myths about Rizzo, blacks," the letter staunchly defended Rizzo's treatment of blacks in Philadelphia.

A 1991 article about Rizzo recalled when the mayor joked that Fulwood should not eat in the car because Rizzo didn't want "chitlins and greens all over the inside."

It said Mr. Fulwood "raised his eyes in mock disgust and said, as an aside, 'What a rigatoni!' "

Mr. Fulwood graduated from Simon Gratz High School in 1962, then served in the Air Force until joining the Philadelphia Police Department in 1966. He had worked his way up to lieutenant by the time he retired, and will receive honors from the department at his funeral.

After retirement, Mr. Fulwood kept busy working for the Office of School Safety in the Philadelphia School District and with AlliedBarton Security Services.

Throughout his life, he was a history buff who loved learning about the Civil War. Abraham remembered how he could recite Civil War generals' names from memory as easily as he navigated Philadelphia's streets, which he knew "like the back of his hand," she said.

Haines-Fulwood, his widow, recalled how she used to send Mr. Fulwood cards and flowers as his secret admirer in the 1970s. He inspired her to join the police force in 1986, two decades before they married.

Despite their on-again-off-again romance, Haines-Fulwood said, her husband had been her best friend for decades. When he called her in 2008 to tell her of his diagnosis, she said she immediately "gave up my entire life" and came to care for him.

He had a huge set of friends.

Boxer Joe Frazier was within his circle, along with Roots author Alex Haley, and Desmond Tutu, the South African archbishop and civil-rights activist.

"If he could move a mountain so you could have a better view of your dream, he would move it," said his stepdaughter, Michelle Haines-Hegerman, who also went into police work. "He was a man that would say things like 'If you want to live your dream, you have to wake up.' "

Services will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Deliverance Evangelistic Church, 2001 W. Lehigh Ave. The viewing will be 9 to 11 a.m. Burial will follow the service at the historic African American Eden Cemetery, 1434 Springfield Rd., Collingdale.