PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SHRADER FAMILY

George Shrader, Jr., pictured with his family and 12 grandchildren, was the first police chief of the city of Fife. Shrader died April 27 at the age of 72.

Fife’s first police chief dies

By Meghan Erkkinen

George Shrader, Jr., Fife’s first police chief, died April 27 at the Veterans Administration Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle. He was 72.

Shrader was hired as a patrolman by the Fife Police Department in 1968 along with James Paulson, who was appointed to chief after Shrader. He was appointed the first chief of police for the city a year later. Shrader is credited with laying the foundation for what the department is today.

“He established the main policies for the department, what we do,” said current Police Chief Brad Blackburn. “He did lay a good foundation.”

And even though Fife has changed drastically since Shrader was chief, Blackburn said his fundamental vision is still there.

“He and Chief Paulson were very community-oriented,” he said. “That’s kind of what we still do today.”

Shrader was well respected and well liked by the community during his time as chief, Blackburn added.

Shrader’s son, James, recalls when his father became the police chief.

“From there, things just kind of went crazy,” he said. “He started upgrading the cars and changing the uniforms and kind of started the police department.”

And although the Shraders lived in Tacoma, the family made themselves at home in the city where George Shrader worked.

“People used to think we lived in Fife because we spent so much time there and we had so many friends there,” James Shrader recalled. “He was always around there. He literally knew everybody…He ran the town as a human being and not just as the chief of police.”

Shrader was also very involved in his church, Holy Rosary in Tacoma. Friends and family recall him as funny, entertaining and loyal.

Lonnie Mangus met Shrader in the spring of 1970, when Mangus was a volunteer firefighter. Since then, Mangus said he became very close friends with Shrader.

“He’s about the closest thing I’ve had to a brother,” Mangus said.

He described Shrader as a comedian, and recalled a birthday party at which Shrader had a room of more than 100 people in tears with his stories and jokes.

“He was just a great friend and I’ll miss him dearly, and so will my kids and my family,” Mangus said.

Shrader was born March 14, 1936, in Wattensas, Ark., to a family of farmers and laborers. He joined the U.S. Army at 17 and went on to fight in the Korean War. He later joined a trucking company in California, where he met his wife, Rita, with whom he celebrated his 50th anniversary earlier this year.

George and Rita Shrader had five children – four sons and a daughter. After working as a police officer in Irwindale, Calif., Shrader moved his family to Milton, where he worked briefly as a patrol officer, and then to Fife.

Shrader retired from the Fife Police Department in 1977 due to heart palpitations. He went on to work for Gordon Trucking, where he stayed for 27 years before his retirement.

“He definitely had a full life,” James Shrader said. “He’s got to be the single most influential person in my life and probably the greatest man I’ve ever known.”

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