Lacey police officer never missed a day on job in 30 years

LACEY — Lacey police Sgt. Rick Monk's 30 years of protecting and serving the community ended Friday with a remarkable achievement: He never once took a sick day during his entire career on the force.

To mark his perfect work record, the command staff at Lacey Police Department on Friday presented Monk with a special gift in the Lacey City Council chambers. In front of a room packed with Lacey officers and police from other Thurston County agencies, Monk received a framed, autographed photo of baseball's "iron man," Cal Ripken Jr., who set a major-league baseball record by playing in 2,632 games in a row for the Baltimore Orioles.

Lacey police Cmdr. John Suessman said Monk worked 7,120 days, averaging a 10 ½-hour shift each day. That averages out to 240 shifts each year for 30 years — weekends, holidays and vacations excluded.

"It is your dedication to service that we will never forget," Suessman said.

Ripken signed the photo: "Here's to a real iron man, enjoy your retirement."

Work, no matter what

Monk, 60, said he can remember some days when he was under the weather and came to work anyway. But he said he was never so sick he couldn't go to work. "My wife was nice enough to have our kids on my days off," Monk joked.

Monk's wife of 35 years, Bobbi, used one word in describing her husband's work streak, an adjective: stubborn.

"If he makes a promise, he keeps it," she said.

Lacey police Chief Dusty Pierpoint and a number of other city luminaries, including Mayor Tom Nelson, who also is a former Lacey police lieutenant, City Manager Greg Cuoio, and former Lacey police Cmdr. Ed Sorger, now police chief for The Evergreen State College, all praised Monk's record of achievement.

During Monk's law-enforcement career in Lacey, he was a narcotics detective, a firearms instructor and a domestic-violence response-team member, and he helped detail the designs on the department's patrol cars, Pierpoint said.

A lifesaving award

In 2002, Monk received a lifesaving award from the American Red Cross for pulling an unconscious man out of a burning car on College Street after a collision, Pierpoint said. Monk also won Lacey's police officer of the year award in 2000, "one of the most prestigious awards a Lacey police officer can attain," Pierpoint added.

"There isn't one officer here that can't say that Rick hasn't in some way been involved in their development, myself included," Pierpoint said.

Chief Sorger invited Monk to join him working at The Evergreen State College Police Services in his retirement, and he gave Monk a Geoduck coffee mug and a shirt with a peace sign on it from the college's gift shop. Monk graduated from TESC in 1970.

Sorger also remembered one occasion when he was a Lacey officer responding to a "man gone berserk" at a store on College Street. The man was "wielding what looked to be a cleaver," and Sorger said that as he apprehended the man during a scuffle, Monk came up from behind him and "saved my bacon."

Lacey Police Lt. Phil Comstock said he always will remember responding with Monk to a call in 1984 involving an infant living in squalor in a Lacey apartment complex.

"This kid was virtually on the edge of death," Comstock said.

Monk not only took charge of the scene, leading an investigation that led to the child's adoption and a conviction of the child's mother, he said, but Monk also led a fight to change Washington's laws to make some instances of child endangerment a felony, testifying before the state Legislature about the case.

Monk "helped save that child's life," Comstock said. Today, the young man is in his 20s, married, lives locally and is still in contact with Comstock and Monk.

"He cares about people," Comstock said of Monk. "We have some shoes to fill here. ... It's not going to be the same place without Rick."

Comstock confirmed Friday that Monk's days working without sick leave gave him no financial benefit. In Lacey, police don't accrue their unused sick time.

"He does his work because he loves his job," Comstock said. To laughter, several speakers joked during Friday's ceremony about changing that Lacey policy in the future.

Comstock told a story about Monk taking a vacation to Hawaii and undergoing an emergency appendectomy. When Monk returned from vacation, he took no days off despite the surgery, Comstock said.

Comstock said he can think of no other Lacey police officer with Monk's years served with no sick time taken.

Said Cuoio, "You've put yourself at risk for the benefit of the community, and you've done that for 30 years."

Monk said he looks forward to doing some traveling. He also said he'll "sleep in a little bit."

Monk's wife, Bobbi, said, "I'm just so excited to start a new avenue in life."