Robert B. Wall (’12 M.S.), 69, of Ponder, who had served as a police officer and was a senior lecturer in criminal justice, died July 10, 2026.

Bob began his police career in 1981. He served for almost three decades in Haltom City and Grapevine, achieving the rank of sergeant and serving in many different roles, including as a traffic and narcotics investigator, a field training officer, a member of the crime scene search unit and the emergency response (tactical) team, and supervisor of the DWI and crash investigation unit.

In 2006, he earned a bachelor’s degree in criminology and criminal justice from the University of Texas at Arlington. In 2008, he retired from active law enforcement and began teaching as an adjunct instructor at Tarrant County College’s Basic Police Academy. He also established his own investigative firm, Wall Investigative Services (and later Forensic Investigation and Reconstruction), where he specialized in accident and crash investigation, crime and collision reconstruction, forensic review and complex crime investigations. He also served as an expert witness and investigator/reconstructionist.

In 2016 — four years after earning his master’s degree in criminal justice from UNT — he joined the university’s Department of Criminal Justice as senior lecturer, guiding the next generation of law enforcement professionals. He was coordinator for the criminal justice online degree completion program and the criminalistics program, managed the Cyber Forensics Lab and served as internship coordinator and adjunct faculty liaison. He wrote a textbook for students studying criminal justice and a book for legal professionals, and was involved with the Professional Development Institute’s private investigator training course.

Bob also had completed coursework in the criminology doctoral program at the University of Texas at Dallas. He served on the board of directors for the Texas Association of Licensed Investigators, where he coordinated and conducted training sessions, and he had served in the U.S. Air National Guard and Army National Guard.

At UNT, he was a member of the President’s Council donor recognition society and was an established donor of the Fallen Officers Memorial Endowed Scholarship in Criminal Justice.