PITTSBURGH — An FBI agent slain during a drug raid in suburban Pittsburgh was a man who loved his job so much he could barely believe he was paid to do it.

Sam Hicks was remembered Friday by about 200 friends, family and law enforcement officials at a memorial service in Pittsburgh. The 33-year-old FBI special agent was killed Nov. 19 while serving a drug-trafficking warrant.

The Pittsburgh Police band's bagpipes streamed through the university neighborhood of Oakland while an honor guard lined up outside the 102-year-old St. Paul Cathedral. Inside the cavernous chamber, Hicks was memorialized as a loyal agent, a loving husband and a proud father.

FBI Director Robert Mueller said that, while he never knew Hicks personally, he felt like he had gotten to know him in the weeks following his death by listening to stories told by his wife, Brooke, and by meeting his 2-year-old son, Noah. Hicks, it turned out, was the best at everything he did, Mueller said.

"He deserved the recognition in death that he had not sought in life," Mueller said.

Hicks was a talented law enforcement officer who specialized in narcotics and always had the most and best sources of information, Mueller said.

Chuck Hileman, Hicks' childhood friend, thanked the slain agent's mother for raising him to be the man he became and thanking his father for allowing them to reconnect.

Hicks' funeral was Nov. 25 in Baltimore, his wife's hometown and where he served as a police officer for five years.