Sunday's Internet Edition, September 07, 2008.

April 5th will be Williams’ last day on the job before he retires from police work for a second time.
“This is a young man’s job,” Williams, who will turn 57 later this year, explained.

Williams will have served almost 35 years as a police officer.

He began training at the W.Va. State Police Academy at the age of 20, when the age limit was lowered to 18 during the Vietnam War. Now cadets must be 21 to join the State Police.

Williams served in the State Police almost 22 years, with assignments in Parkersburg, Big Chimney, South Charleston and Grantsville. His longest assignment was the 13 years he spent at the Spencer detachment. When he retired in 1994 at the age of 42 he was a first sergeant supervising detachments in Weston, Glenville and Sutton.

He went to work for the Spencer Police Dept. in 1995, first serving as a corporal and then as lieutenant. He became chief Oct. 1, 2001.

Williams said he hopes to be remembered for modernizing the police department.

“When I came here we didn’t even have a computer. Now we have six,” he said. “We had one marked car and two used state cruisers. Now we have five cruisers and two four-wheel drives.”

Williams was chief when the new municipal building was opened in 2002.

“Our equipment and our facilities are the best they’ve ever been,” Williams said. “It’s been a great place to work. I’ve had great cooperation from the mayor and the city council.”

Williams, who grew up in South Charleston and graduated from South Charleston High School and Morris Harvey College, considers Spencer his adopted hometown, maintaining her residence here even after he was no longer assigned to the Spencer detachment.

He is proud of the fact that 25-1/2 years of his career as a police officer has been spent in Roane County.

“That may be a record,” he said.

Mayor Terry Williams said he had not given much thought to finding a replacement for Williams because it’s something he hasn’t wanted to think about.

“It’s hard to replace a person like Gary Williams,” the mayor said. “He’s been a terrific chief and great to work with. He’s been very conscientious and trained the men well. It’s hard to fill somebody’s shoes like that.”

The mayor said the position would be advertised, and a committee set up to review applications.

“We’ll probably want Gary to be involved in the selection process even after his retirement here,” the mayor said. “We’ll probably start getting applications after the first of April and, in my opinion, we’ll make a selection in 30 to 60 days.”