1957-2008
A public memorial service for Kristine Fairbanks will be held at:
Civic Field
S Race St & E 4th St
Port Angeles, WA 98362
Monday, September 29th at 1:00 p.m.
Thank you to everyone who has contacted the Olympic National Forest in recent days. We have received an outpouring of support from local citizens and agencies as well as agency offices nationwide.
We are deeply saddened by the loss of Kristine Fairbanks. She was an exemplary professional in every way and she will be greatly missed. Kris has worked for the Forest Service for 22 years, and she leaves behind a husband and daughter.
Letters of condolence are being accepted at any of the Olympic National Forest district offices as well as the headquarters in Olympia.
| Cards may be sent to the Fairbanks family at: Pacific District - North 437 Tillicum Lane Forks, WA 98331 | Flowers may be delivered to: Harper Ridgeview Funeral Chapel |
Olympic National Forest News Releases:
Sept. 23, 2008 - Public memorial service in honor of Kristine Fairbanks to be held in Port Angeles
Sept. 23, 2008 - Community meeting in Forks to honor Kristine Fairbanks
Sept. 23, 2008 - Olympic National Forest Staff mourns death of Officer Kris Fairbanks
..................................................................................................................................................................Details on memorial service in Port Angeles announced
A memorial service with full police honors for Forest Service Officer Kristine Fairbanks is scheduled at Civic Field in Port Angeles on Monday, Sept. 29, at 1:00 pm. The public is invited to attend.
Community members wanting to share flowers or candles have expressed the desire to establish memorial sites in honor of Fairbanks. In Forks, a memorial has been established at the Forks Transit Center, located at the intersection of E Street and Forks Avenue. In Port Angeles, the site is at the Port Angeles Police Department’s front entrance at 321 East 5th Street.
Cards may be sent to the Fairbanks family care of the Pacific Ranger District, 437 Tillicum Lane, Forks, WA 98331. Those wishing to send flowers may have them delivered to Harper Ridgeview Funeral Chapel, 105 West 4th Street, Port Angeles, WA 98362.
Civic Field is located at East 4th Street and South Race Street in Port Angeles. For more information, or questions regarding Monday’s memorial service, please call 360-565-2680.
Forks Articles
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Forks Forum photo
Kris Fairbanks at a 4-H dog show event.
Kristine Fairbanks Memorial Fund set up
An account has been set up for donations to the Kristine Fairbanks Memorial Fund at First Federal in Forks. The mailing address at the Forks Branch is P.O. Box 1467 Forks WA 98331..................................................................................................................................................................
Community meeting Wednesday night to honor Kris Fairbanks
The Olympic National Forest is hosting a community meeting to honor Forest Service law enforcement officer Kristine Fairbanks at the Forks High School Commons, Wednesday, Sept. 24, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. in Forks.The public is invited to attend.
The meeting will feature presentations by the Forest Service highlighting Fairbanks’ accomplishments and her contributions to the different agencies with whom she worked during her 22-year Forest Service career. Also, the meeting will include briefings by the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, the Critical Incident Stress Management Team, and a dedication to Fairbanks by Forks Mayor Nedra Reed.................................................................................................................................................................
Chris Cook Forks Forum photo
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'A wonderful peace officer': Forks neighbors, friends mourn slain forest officer
Kristine Fairbanks was a 4-H leader of the Happy Tails dog club in Clallam County on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. She was killed in the line of duty as a U.S. Forest Service Officer.
By Jim Casey, Peninsula Daily NewsFORKS — As Nedra Reed turned Saturday onto U.S. Highway 101, she spotted a familiar sight in her rearview mirror:
U.S. Forest Service Officer Kristine Fairbanks also pulling onto the highway and heading east.
"We just went on our way," said Reed, mayor of Forks, about her trip with her husband, Phil, "never knowing that was the last time we would see her."
Fairbanks eventually drove to the Forest Service's Dungeness Forks Campground south of Sequim, where she was fatally shot after she approached a Dodge van that had no license plates.
Clallam County sheriff's officials believe she was killed by Shawn Matthew Roe, a man with a history of domestic violence.
Roe was shot to death by a Clallam deputy about seven hours after Fairbanks was last heard from.
Fairbanks, a wife and mother, was a 15-year veteran of Forest Service law enforcement who credited her forestry professor father, John Willits, now a leader in the North Olympic Land Trust, with teaching her a love for the outdoors.
'A wonderful peace officer'
"This community has lost a wonderful person," Reed said Sunday, unable to keep from crying.
"A wonderful peace officer, a wonderful wife, a wonderful mother, a wonderful friend."
Fairbanks' husband, Brian Fairbanks, said Sunday that he had no public comment to make then.
Marcia Bingham, director of the Forks Chamber of Commerce, was Fairbanks' neighbor along the Bogachiel River about six miles north of Forks.
"She moved onto the street I live on about six months ago," Bingham said, "and she absolutely loved living on the river."
Bingham said Fairbanks, her husband and her daughter, Whitney, were a close-knit family, with the adults involved and active in their 15-year-old daughter's life.
"She attended all the games," Bingham said.
Her daughter, a Forks High School sophomore, is on the junior varsity volleyball team that played in Centralia on Saturday morning.
Mother and daughter also were regulars at the annual Christmas bazaar of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church.
"She and Whitney sat at the table and took money every year," Bingham said.
"It was sort of her tradition."
PDN article
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Slain Forest Service officer left mark of caring on many livesSlain U.S. Forest Service officer Kristine "Kris" Fairbanks left a mark of compassion, generosity and inspiration on many other lives.
Seattle Times staff reporter
There's no evidence slain U.S. Forest Service officer Kristine "Kris" Fairbanks knew her alleged assailant, Shawn Roe, a sometime tree-trimmer with a history of domestic-violence-related convictions.
But Fairbanks, 51, who died of a gunshot Saturday after stopping Roe's truck, knew well the trauma domestic violence can wreak, and she spent years — and money — helping salve the wounds of victims.
"She pretty much saved our lives," former neighbor Rachel Williams, 20, said Sunday. "My sister and I were going through a domestic-violence situation, and she came over and got us out of the house and called for backup."
That's just one example of the intertwined courage and compassion those who knew Fairbanks said she so freely displayed.
It was about six years ago when Fairbanks rescued Rachel and her twin, Andrea, then entering their teens. They lived across the street from the Fairbanks family — husband Brian, 15-year-old daughter Whitney — in the tiny Olympic Peninsula town of Forks.
(Brian Fairbanks is an officer with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. The family could not be reached Sunday.)
As the years passed, Kristine Fairbanks unfailingly stepped in to become "like our second mom," Rachel Williams said. It was a role she never stopped playing.
When Rachel lacked the money to attend her senior prom, Fairbanks helped her buy a glittery turquoise gown. When the girls needed computers, she bought each a laptop. There were frequent dinners at the Fairbanks home, where Kris would sometimes cook her specialty, Cornish game hens, and entertain the girls with what Rachel describes as a "really goofy" sense of humor.
Also served up were gently delivered life lessons: Stand up to abuse. Make your life better.
"She inspired us to go to school to get good jobs so we could be better people," Rachel said.
Empowerment was a strong theme running through Fairbanks' life, too.
As a Forest Service officer, she had to have confidence in her skills as she patrolled many miles of the Olympic Peninsula forests alone, save for her K-9 companion, a strapping German shepherd named Radar.
"She had a very dangerous job," recounted Chiggers Stokes, a retired park ranger who found her "direct, compassionate, humane" and unflinching in doing her job.
Much of it involved protecting federal property from timber poachers or clandestine drug labs. "She was out there in very secluded places," Stokes recalled. "She'd go up against hunters who all had weapons, or salal hunters who had sharp knives."
Aiding her always was her K-9 partner. He'd get between her and others. "The teamwork with her dog is the stuff movies are made of," Stokes said.
Known as something of a "dog whisperer," Fairbanks' passion for canines propelled her into volunteer leadership of Forks' 4-H dog club, called Happy Tails.
Twenty-two kids, from elementary age through high school, belonged and not all could afford to participate, said Kayla Hansen, whose daughters were members along with Fairbanks' daughter.
Hansen said Fairbanks and Whitney were especially close, and helping Whitney and her Jack Russell terrier compete in 4-H brought her joy.
With Happy Tails members, Fairbanks again opened her heart and her wallet, for leashes, food and grooming, and once, a $300 vet bill.
"She wanted the kids to have a good time and learn something about their dog, and if you happened to win something ... great," said Lori Hanson, the 4-H club's assistant leader. "She is going to be hard to replace."
But in their own ways, the Williams sisters are going to try.
Because of Kris Fairbanks' mentoring, Rachel Williams developed a love of dogs that's led to a job with a veterinarian. Her sister Andrea's goal is to become a law-enforcement officer.
"I loved her," Andrea said Sunday, breaking into tears. "I'll make her proud."
Seattle Times researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this story.
Elizabeth Rhodes: erhodes@seattletimes.com.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
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Washington State Department of Corrections