Richard Fuller is a leader with experience and dedication.

Born in Marshall Michigan to a working class family in 1964, Richard Fuller is the oldest of four siblings.  His parents instilled a strong work ethic in Richard and taught him the valuable lesson of doing the job right the first time.

Richard was your average American boy.  He loved to play outdoors, and spent his first ten years on Stuart Lake.  Living the lake life, he ice skated in the winter and swam in the summer.  He was a boy scout and an athlete.  He played baseball and football.  He also competed as a wrestler and in track.

Even at a young age Richard showed an aptitude for responsibility.  At age eleven he started his first job, delivering newspapers.  In three years time he’d developed his route into one of the largest and the most highly desirable.  He sold his route after four years and at age fifteen started a new position as a dishwasher with Cornwell’s Turkey House in Turkeyville.  On his downtime Richard took the initiative to learn other positions, like cook.  Responsibility sits well on Richard Fuller’s shoulders and by age twenty-two, Richard earned the position of Assistant Manager.

Richard became an adult during the recession of the eighties and it hit his family hard.  His father lost his job when the company moved over seas.  The odd jobs Richard’s handy father and resourceful mother were able to find were not enough to support a family of six in the year of 1982.  They chose to move to North Carolina to find work.  However, Richard and his two younger brothers had spent their whole lives in Michigan and weren’t ready to leave.  At age seventeen, Richard took it upon himself to answer his parent’s prayers and tried his best to take charge of the family in their absence.   His youngest sister went with his parents as they sought too make ends meet in another state.   Richard is the oldest in the family and while he and his brothers supported one another, he needed to be the strong one.  They looked to him to be the boss, so he was. 

Richard’s job at Cornwell’s Turkey House enabled him to buy a house, transportation and further his education.  He paid his own way through Kellogg Community College, despite the recession and having siblings to look after.  During his time at college, Richard obtained an Emergency Medical Technician’s license as well.  This license allowed Richard to take a full time position with the Marshall Firefighters Ambulance Service.  Richard also became a Reserve Officer for the city of Marshall Police Department.  He achieved the rank of Lieutenant and interviewed prospective Reserve Officers to make recommendations to the Chief on future staffing. 

Upon earning an Associates Degree in Law Enforcement from Kellogg Community College in 1988, Richard went to work for the Village of Homer Police Department as a full time officer.  While working in Homer, Richard met Lisa Davis.  Later Richard married Lisa and they have two children, daughter, Tamila and son, Scott.

In 1989 one of Richard’s dreams came true.  He was offered a position at a premiere police agency—Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Department.  Almost twenty years later, Richard is still apart of that premiere agency and his career there has taken many paths.  He has done everything from dispatch, road patrol, field training officer, lab technician, worked in the detective bureau, sergeant of the jail, and Uniform Services Station (or Road Patrol) where he currently supervises nineteen deputies.

Richard also supervises four programs for the Sheriff’s Department:

Project Lifesaver: Aid, search, rescue and support for families dealing with Autism and Alzheimer’s disease.

The Clandestine Laboratory Methamphetamine Unit:  A ten-deputy team that investigates, collects evidence and cleans Methamphetamine drug sites.

The Field Training Officers Unit:  Training of new employees in department procedures and the laws pertaining to our jobs.  Richard Fuller also co-authored the current book and curriculum for the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Department

AED / CPR:  Richard directs the department’s annual training in the use of the Automated External Defibulator and Cardio Pulmonary Resusetation.   Education on Blood Borne Pathogen Defense tactics.

Richard Fuller has also completed eight hundred hours of specialized instruction obtaining certificates in many different parts of law enforcement.  Some of them include, FTO, Evidence Technician, Death Scene Investigation, Community Policing, Bloodstain and Pattern Analysis, Interview and Interrogation techniques and Handwriting Analysis. 

When asked what it takes to be an effective Sheriff and why he feels he is the right person for the job, Richard Fuller had this to say:

Someone who has the experience to do the job.  Not just Law Enforcement experience but people and life experience.

I think this person should have the heart of a lion and the soul to match it.  They need to be a
ble to express themselves so others understand the passion for service they have. 

When someone commits to this path as a career they need to be ready for the trials they will face. 

 This person must be fair but firm, knowledgeable but willing to listen not only to others but also to themselves.

Why do I think I am this person?

I have trained my whole life for this.  I have studied not only law enforcement but fire fighting and emergency medical training.  I have continued my education through college and nearly 900 hours of Law Enforcement training. 

I have been in the service field all my life.  I served customers with a paper route learning at an early age to make sure you do things right.  I worked through high school in a restaurant further teaching me the importance of customer service.  My work with youth has taught me that we are not merely teachers but students ourselves.

I have listened to what people say and what they need.  I want to be the change we need.

Richard has lived with his wife in Kalamazoo for eighteen years and plan on staying here the rest of their lives.  Both of his children graduated from Kalamazoo Public schools.  Richard and Lisa are very proud of their children, who are active in the community.  Tamila is a soon to be a college senior studying Forensic Science at Eastern Kentucky University.  Scott will be a freshman at Western Michigan University next year.  Lisa works at Senior Services Inc, an organization to assist aging and disabled populations.

The Fuller family attends Life Spring Church of Texas Corners.