Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Chris Fay dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player, not a federal agent.
“Law enforcement wasn’t really on my radar,” Fay told The Chronicle last week.
And yet, after serving over 25 years in federal law enforcement, the retiring Fay is believed to be the only person who has worked as a criminal investigator for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS).
That’s out of roughly 40,000 current federal agents, according to a records historian at the Department of Justice.
The self-described sixth-generation farm kid — whose great-great-grandfather started a homestead in Adna in 1863 — said law enforcement just wasn’t something he grew up around. Both of his parents were teachers.
“And then, one day when I was in high school, this guy from Chehalis P.D. shows up named Randy Kaut,” Fay said.
The future Chehalis police chief had come to talk about a new Law Enforcement Explorers program for high schoolers.
Intrigued, Fay signed up.
“Next thing you know, we're hanging out at the Chehalis P.D. on weekends and washing patrol cars and going on ride-alongs,” Fay said.
The program gave the 15-year-old his first exposure to law enforcement.
Years later, Fay, then a left-handed pitcher at the University of Portland, began to seriously think about his future beyond baseball. He remembered his time in the Chehalis program.
While in college, Fay spent a year working as a cadet for the Clark County Sheriff's Office. He then landed a job with the Chehalis Police Department in 1996 shortly after graduating.
About two years later, Fay was spending time with some DEA agents in town for an investigation when he learned the federal agency was hiring.
Fay applied to the agency and was accepted into its training academy. He described being conflicted about joining, until an older colleague at the police department told him every young person should go on their own odyssey.
“And if it's meant to be, they'll return home one day,” Fay said.
The young officer took his colleague’s advice and began with the DEA in 1999. The job took Fay across the country and around the world on permanent assignments in Seattle, San Francisco, Spokane, Miami and Kingston, Jamaica.
While in Kingston, Fay served as an advisor to a Caribbean drug smuggling investigations unit of over 30 foreign law enforcement officers.
Fay’s investigations focused on high-level drug trafficking and, later, international money laundering. He spent time on temporary assignments in countries such as China, Belgium, and Mexico, before joining the ATF in 2015 — a decision Fay made, in part, to be closer to family.
After two years in Montana with the ATF, Fay was contacted by Craig Thayer, the U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Washington. Thayer knew of Fay’s desire to return to his home state, and said he could bring Fay over to the USMS.
All Fay had to do was enter another training academy.
“I joke with people, I'm 52 years old, and I've spent 52 weeks of my life in various academies,” Fay said. “So a full year of my life has been spent marching and doing pushups and tucking in my bedsheets and all that stuff.”
During his time with the Marshals Service, Fay worked security and protection details for the United Nations General Assembly, three supreme justices and dozens of federal judges.
He also participated in international extraditions in Turkey and Kazakhstan, and coordinated investigations into sex offender registration compliance and missing children.
After 10 years with the USMS, Fay is retiring as a supervisor of the USMS Court and Prisoner Operations unit at the United States Courthouse in Tacoma.
Over the course of his storied career in federal law enforcement, Fay has worked under five presidential administrations and 10 attorneys general. And though he’s been around the world, Fay said he’s been able to impact local communities everywhere he went.
“I think about how fortunate I've been to meet and work with and become really close friends with people from all over the country, really from all over the world,” Fay said.
Fay said his work has also given him an appreciation for people’s different perspectives.
“There's so much out there in the world of law enforcement and so many opportunities in all the different agencies,” Fay said.
Now, as he transitions into the private sector, Fay is excited about giving back to his community, and spending time with his family and parents in Adna. Fay said he’s a member of the Lewis County Farm Bureau and recently became a member of the Adna Grange.
“I feel like I kind of grew up there,” Fay said of the Grange.
Fay is even planning a retirement celebration to be held in his hometown on Saturday, Aug. 29.
As his former Chehalis police colleague — and proponent of personal odysseys — might’ve predicted, the return home was “meant to be.”
A message from the Chris Fay family:
A retirement celebration is currently planned for Saturday, Aug. 29. Friends, former colleagues and members of the community who have been positively affected by Chris' work, and who would like to attend — or simply to pass a congratulatory note — are asked to send an email message to fayretirementcelebration@gmail.com.
