Former Pierce sheriff who left ‘heck of a legacy’ has died. He led the agency for 4 years

Note: This story has been updated to include a memorial date of Aug. 27 for Chuck Robbins. The time and location have not been finalized.

The man who instituted the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department’s moral code in the wake of a scandal that saw a previous sheriff imprisoned has died, according to his family.

Although former Tacoma Police Chief Lyle Smith was the man who inherited the department at its lowest point, Charles “Chuck” Robbins picked up the torch and charged his command staff with developing a list of core values.

Robbins, who served as sheriff from 1988 to 1992, died at home in Eatonville on July 29 from health complications. He was 84.

Pierce County’s longest-tenured sheriff, Paul Pastor, looked at revising the core values he helped write with Robbins, but Pastor’s top brass couldn’t find a flaw.

Ask anyone in the department, and they’ll rattle off the list — integrity, responsibility, respect, courage, compassion — in a heartbeat, said Nick Hausner, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department chief of Administrative Services.

“And that is a heck of legacy,” said Hausner, who Robbins hired shortly after he became sheriff.

“He’s been a role model for me throughout my entire career,” Hausner told The News Tribune.

Robbins joined the department in 1962, and former County Executive Joe Stortini appointed him sheriff in 1988. Pierce County moved to an appointed sheriff after the arrest of its elected sheriff in 1979 on racketeering charges and reverted back to an elected sheriff in 2008 under Pastor.

Robbins was the first sheriff in the history of the department to rise through the ranks from a deputy, according to The News Tribune archives. He retired in 1992 as Stortini reached his term limit.

“Sheriff Robbins was well known and well liked for his outgoing personality,” current Sheriff Ed Troyer wrote in a Facebook post. “He stayed in touch with many current and former department members, and will fondly be remembered for his friendly demeanor.”

Robert Fuller, one of Gig Harbor’s original resident deputies beginning in the ‘60s, recalled how Robbins was among the first people to visit him after his 2-year-old daughter died in a swimming accident.

Fuller said that compassion came with a sense of humor, too. Laid up in the hospital recovering from a heart attack, Fuller said he felt a presence by his bedside late one night.

“And sure enough, it was Charlie,” said Fuller, 80. “He said, ‘I came to take you out on patrol with me.’”

Four years after Robbins retired, former County Executive Doug Sutherland hired him as executive director of public safety amid scrutiny of the sheriff’s department, county jail and medical examiner’s office.

The News Tribune Editorial Board applauded his promise to bring greater accountability to Pierce County law enforcement agencies.

Robbins was “able to be righteous without being self-righteous,” Pastor told The News Tribune this week. “Standing for the right things but not beating his chest.”

Pastor met Robbins in 1985 while working at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Academy. He joined the sheriff’s department in 1986.

Though Robbins was known for counseling deputies and community members about doing the right thing, Robbins was a listener rather than a finger-wagger, said Pastor.

“Chuck was a man who stood up and pointed in the right direction without calling a lot of glory on himself,” Pastor said.

Robbins retired again in 2001 when the county dissolved his position and tapped then-interim Sheriff Pastor to take on the permanent role reporting directly to the county executive.

Hausner, who lived down the road from Robbins and continued to seek his advice post-retirement, recalled Robbins correcting him when he called him “sheriff” years after his retirement.

“‘You’ll always be the sheriff to me,’” Hausner said he replied. “He was so moved by that you could tell he loved being the sheriff.”

The Robbins family plans to hold a memorial locally on Aug. 27 with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department Honor Guard present. The family will announce the time and location in an obituary published in The News Tribune once details are finalized.