NEW YORK CITY (PIX11) -- Members of the New York Police Department mourned one of their longest-serving members on Wednesday morning.

The NYPD's Chief Chaplain Rabbi Alvin Kass passed away at the age of 89, according to a social media post from Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

"His loss is immeasurable. His example is everlasting," wrote Tisch. "He comforted the grieving, counseled the troubled, and reminded all of us of the deeper purpose in what we do."

The U.S. Air Force veteran and Columbia graduate joined the NYPD in 1966, at the age of 30, making him the youngest chaplain in the Department’s history.

Over the course of his six decades with the department, Rabbi Kass talked a suicidal man off a ledge at the World Trade Center in 1977 and convinced a gunman to release a female ho

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