Police Specialist Mary Diane (Zieverink) Hosinski PS-98
(1946-2025)
Mary was born November 8, 1946 in Waukegan, Illinois, the first of eleven children born to Edward William Zieverink, Jr., and June (Pope) Zieverink. In 1948, her father joined the Cincinnati Police Division as a Patrolman.
Mary attended Seton High School where she participated in a dozen extracurricular activities and graduated in 1964. She attended Mount Saint Joseph College and Xavier University and, on June 8, 1966, earned a Bachelor of Science in Education in the university’s first graduating class of women. She later earned a master’s degree in Corrections in August 1972.
While she was attending college, her father was promoted to Police Specialist in 1966. Also in 1966, her brother, Edward W. Zieverink III, joined the Police Department as a Police Cadet.
About 1967, Mary took a position as a teacher at St. Williams Grade School.
Mary joined her father in the Cincinnati Police Division on June 8, 1969 as a Policewoman, becoming the first daughter-officer of a Cincinnati officer. She was issued Badge 706 and assigned to the Juvenile Bureau. By the end of 1969, she was also working undercover in narcotics investigations, apparently detailed to the Vice Control Bureau. She married Mark Hosinski in 1971.
On March 4, 1971, while Policewoman Hosinski was off duty and unarmed, an armed man jumped into her car while she was stopped a traffic light and told her to drive to a secluded place. Along the way, she talked him out of his ill intent, and he left her vehicle. Three days later, the same man abducted and raped another woman. Policewoman Hosinski and two other detectives surveilled the area of Queen City for a week, and she spotted the man, and they arrested him. The man was later found guilty in four similar events.
On August 27, 1972, she was promoted to Policewoman Specialist and issued Badge PS-98. On July 15, 1973, Specialist Hosinski was transferred to the Criminal Justice Unit of the Program Management Bureau. She transferred back to the Youth Aid Section on February 2, 1975. On September 14, 1975, the Division established a Rape Squad in the Homicide Unit and Specialist Hosinski was one of the four officers transferred to the unit. While there, she also assisted in murder investigations, receiving a commendation for at least one arrest of a murderer.
Her husband was needed in South Bend, Indiana to run his father’s family business. Specialist Hosinski resigned on September 1, 1977 with eight years of service and nine letters of appreciation and/or commendation including two from Cincinnati Police Chiefs, one from the Hamilton Police Chief, and one from the Cincinnati City Manager.
She found employment as a paralegal and retired 26 years later from Barnes & Thornburg, LLP.
In her absence, her brother, Edward, was promoted to Police Specialist in 1981 and followed her to the Homicide Unit in 1988. Another brother, James, joined the Division in 1986, was promoted to Police Specialist in 1991, and also went to the Homicide Unit in 2000. No other family in history has had so many Specialists promoted within it.
Specialist Hosinski became extremely ill in the beginning of 2025. She was under hospice care in the first week of February. She died ten days before her 54th wedding anniversary, surrounded by family, on February 12, 2025 at the age of 78.
She was predeceased by her parents and siblings, Irene Schrauder, Joseph Zieverink, and William Zieverink. Specialist Hosinski is survived by her husband of nearly 54 years, Mark D. Hosinski; children, Catherine A. Hosinski, Donald E. (Daphne) Hosinski, and Michael D. (Brenda) Hosinski; grandchildren, Marielle, Lillian, Mark Edward, Julia, Alexander, Mackenzie, and Charlotte Hosinski; siblings, Loretta Zieverink, Veronica Houston, Jeanne (Dan) Rohrmeier, retired Police Specialist Edward (Mary Ann) Zieverink, Frank (Catherine) Zieverink, retired Specialist James (former Police Officer Dawn) Zieverink, and Robert (Julie) Zieverink; and step-mother, Sarah Zieverink.
There was a small, immediate-family-only service in South Bend. There will be no other service.
Memorials may be made to the Greater Cincinnati Police Museum or by mail at 308 Reading Road, Suite 201, Cincinnati, OH 45202.
© 2025 – All rights are reserved to LT Stephen R. Kramer RET and the Greater Cincinnati Police Museum.