CONWAY — Upon his retirement after 28 years of service to the Conway Police Department, Officer Randall Williams says he intends to stay a part of the community — and a frequent visitor to area car shows.

Williams, 66, moved with his family to Franklin County from Burlington, Vermont, when he was 2 years old. After living in Greenfield and South Deerfield, he moved to Conway, where he still lives today. Williams was recruited to become a part-time officer by his friend and former Conway Police Chief Ken Ouimette.

“It’s something I had wanted to do and of course I grew up here, so I wanted to give back to the community,” Williams said. “I’m going to miss it. I used to visit with a lot of my residents and they still want me to swing by, visit and catch up because they’re going to miss seeing me around.”

Before beginning work as a police officer in 1996, Williams was a stonemason contractor. Williams first worked part-time as a Conway officer while balancing masonry until 2000, when he started working as a part-time officer in Whately as well. At that time, he put masonry on hold to commit to policing work in both towns.

Williams finished working in Whately last year and has been replaced in Conway by new Officer Christopher Miner.

“He’s always been a great guy,” Conway Police Chief Donald Bates said, recalling a memory of when Williams helped pick up his kids from school. “He was always willing to help his residents at the drop of the hat.”

Some of Williams’ favorite memories include receiving cookies from residents he helped and sharing the cookies with colleagues at Conway Town Hall, and engaging with the community while working on Halloween nights.

As he heads into retirement, Williams will work occasionally as a traffic control officer, spend time at home in Conway, and visit car shows with his starlight black 1971 Pontiac GTO and blue 1967 Buick Gran Sport 300.

“I had a great career, I am very happy with how things went,” Williams said. “In all my 28 years, I never had to pepper spray anyone or fight anyone. If I ever had a type of call like that I would always try to talk through it so that it didn’t have to come to that.”