A parade honoring Ron Cameron, with nearly two dozen vehicles with lights flashing, heads east on First Street in Port Angeles. (DAVE LOGAN/FOR PENINSULA DAILY NEWS )

A parade honoring Ron Cameron, with nearly two dozen vehicles with lights flashing, heads east on First Street in Port Angeles. (DAVE LOGAN/FOR PENINSULA DAILY NEWS )

Clallam’s undersheriff retires with accolades

Procession through Port Angeles marks last day

PORT ANGELES — Clallam County law enforcement and firefighters followed Ron Cameron home in a procession in his honor on his last day as undersheriff on Friday.

Cameron, who had served with the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office for 38 years, passed through a friendly gauntlet of fellow employees as he left his office, where he most recently served as undersheriff, emergency management department manager and emergency operations center project manager.

Ron Cameron goes through a friendly gauntlet of fellow employees with handshakes and hand claps on his way out off the courthouse for the last time as he is retiring. (DAVE LOGAN/FOR PENINSULA DAILY NEWS )

Ron Cameron goes through a friendly gauntlet of fellow employees with handshakes and hand claps on his way out off the courthouse for the last time as he is retiring. (DAVE LOGAN/FOR PENINSULA DAILY NEWS )

“Undersheriff Cameron has left Clallam County and the Olympic Peninsula better than he found it and his legacy lives both inside and outside the agencies on the Olympic Peninsula and inside our staff every day,” said Sheriff Brian King.

“He was the friendly, capable and professional face of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office,” King added.

Cameron, 65, was honored soon after he made his last radio call, which indicated his final end of watch, as well as filing his last Friday report on the weather, a popular feature on the Clallam County Sheriff’s Facebook Page.

He was escorted home by personnel from just about every law enforcement agency operating in Clallam County, King said, listing Washington State Patrol; Clallam County Sheriff; Port Angeles, Sequim and Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal police departments; US Customs and Border Protection; Border Patrol; Clallam County Search and Rescue; Clallam County Emergency Management; and firefighters with Port Angeles and fire district 2 and 3.

The procession went through the center of Port Angeles at about 4 p.m., tying up traffic briefly.

Cameron started his career in 1979 as a Makah police officer.

“I spent five years there and built my career, family and life from what I gained serving the Makah People through their kindness,” Cameron wrote in his farewell on the sheriff’s office Facebook Page.

“What I left Neah Bay with was a gift that would guide me throughout my life … a gift I will never be able to repay.”

He joined the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office in 1985, working as a deputy primarily on the West End.

“Again, I learned what it is to be a community-oriented law enforcement officer by working with neighborhoods and those that live in Forks, Clallam Bay, La Push and all those special areas of the west end,” Cameron said in his statement.

“I truly believe that the 10 or 11 years I spent out west were the best of my entire career because of the people I became engaged with and those I worked with.”

In 1990, he was promoted to detective and he and his family moved into Port Angeles.

King said that Cameron has held nearly all operations positions in the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, including detective, sergeant, captain, chief criminal deputy and director of Emergency Management.

He worked many years as a drug task force detective, eventually serving as commander of the Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team (OPNET).

He became undersheriff in 2015.

Cameron served under five sheriffs: Kernes, Hawe, Martin, Benedict and King.

As undersheriff, he provided direct supervision of the chief criminal deputy, chief corrections deputy, chief civil deputy, and emergency management and indirectly managed over 100 employees and volunteers.

He was instrumental in the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office obtaining the distinction of dual accreditation with the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (W.A.S.P.C.) in Operations and Corrections, King said.

“I have had the rare opportunity to spend my entire career working in the community I love, the one where I was born and raised,” Cameron wrote.

”Thank you everyone for your confidence and support over all these years,” he continued,ending with: “The weather? Oh yeah. It’s winter in the Pacific Northwest. It’ll be wet and cold, so… Stay safe.”

More in News

Paranormal investigator Amanda Paulson sits next to a photo of Hallie Illingworth at Lake Crescent, where Illingworth’s soap-like body was discovered in 1940. Paulson stars in a newly released documentary, “The Lady of the Lake,” that explores the history of Illingworth’s death and the possible paranormal presence that has remained since. (Ryan Grulich)
Documentary explores paranormal aspects disappearance

Director says it’s a ’ Ghost story for Christmas’

Funding for lodge in stopgap measure

Park official ‘touched by outpouring of support’

Wednesday’s e-edition to be printed Thursday

Peninsula Daily News will have an electronic edition on… Continue reading

Joe Nole.
Jefferson County Sheriff Joe Nole resigns

Commissioners to be appoint replacement within 60 days

Residents of various manufactured home parks applaud the Sequim City Council’s decision on Dec. 9 to approve a new overlay that preserves manufactured home parks so that they cannot be redeveloped for other uses. (Matthew Nash/Olympic Peninsula News Group)
Sequim preserves overlay for homes

Plots can be sold, but use must be same

A ballot box in the Sequim Village Shopping Center at 651 W. Washington St. now holds two fire suppressant systems to prevent fires inside after incidents in October in Vancouver, Wash., and Portland, Ore. A second device was added by Clallam County staff to boxes countywide to safeguard ballots for all future elections. (Matthew Nash/Olympic Peninsula News Group)
Political party officials fine with Clallam’s loss of bellwether

With election certified, reps reflect on goals, security

For 20-plus years, Bob and Kelly Macaulay have decorated their boat and dock off East Sequim Bay Road for Christmas, seen here more than a mile away. However, the couple sold their boat earlier this year. (Doug Schwarz)
Couple retires Christmas boat display on Sequim Bay

Red decorations lit up area for 20-plus years

Hurricane Ridge day lodge funding held up in Congress

The fate of $80 million in funding to rebuild… Continue reading

Judy Davidson, left, and Kathy Thomas, both of Port Townsend, look over the skin care products offered by Shandi Motsi of Port Townsend, one of the 20 vendors at the second annual Procrastinators Craft Fair at the Palindrome/Eaglemount Cidery on Friday. (Steve Mullensky/for Peninsula Daily News)
Procrastinators Market

Judy Davidson, left, and Kathy Thomas, both of Port Townsend, look over… Continue reading

Services could be impacted by closure

Essential workers won’t get paid in shutdown

A now-deceased male cougar was confirmed by Panthera and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife staff to have been infected with Avian influenza on the Olympic Peninsula. (Powell Jones/Panthera)
Two cougars infected with bird flu die

Risk of human infection still low, CDC says

D
Readers contribute $58K to Home Fund to date

Donations can be made for community grants this spring