January 15, 2021
Washington State Patrol Trooper Raymond L. Hawn was struck and killed while offering roadside assistance to a stranded motorist near Grandview on January 17, 1990. He was 47 years old and had served 21 of those years with the Washington State Patrol.
Trooper Hawn was the twenty-fourth member of the WSP organization to lose his life in the line of duty in the agency’s first century of service. Originally from California, he graduated from high school in Grandview, WA before attending college and working in manufacturing then joining the Patrol. A father of three, a husband, and a friend with an infectious smile, he gave his life in the service of the State of Washington and all who call it home. We remember…
BIO
Ray Hawn was born on Oct. 1, 1942, to Merle R. Hawn and Frances E. Paullin in Glendale, Calif. The family relocated to the Yakima Valley where young Ray attended school. He graduated from Grandview High School in 1961 and continued his education at Yakima Valley College.
He worked at a Yakima-based door plant and in a Bellingham-area aluminum plant before being hired by the Washington State Patrol in 1968, serving as a cadet in Bremerton before joining the 46th Trooper Cadet Class.
WSP Trooper Raymond L. Hawn was commissioned on Nov. 9, 1970, under the leadership of Chief Will Bachofner. He was initially assigned to Seattle where he was awarded a safe driving award in 1973. Hawn also served in North Bend, and Bellevue before his final posting to Sunnyside in August 1987.
While posted in North Bend, Hawn married Karen Lee Trimm on April 20, 1985, and was the father of three children: Kelsey, Adam and Brett.
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His longstanding career was cut short on Jan. 17, 1990. Trooper Hawn was doing something he regularly did – helping a stranded motorist. While assisting a motorcycle rider who ran out of fuel along state Route 12 near Grandview, he was struck by a vehicle that had veered onto the shoulder. The 21 year veteran was taken to a local hospital and sadly succumbed to his injuries two hours later at the age of 47.
Trooper Hawn was survived by his wife and three children.
On May 17, 1996, he was posthumously awarded the Washington Law Enforcement Medal of Honor.
In a memorial note posted online decades after his passing, a once young, now older gentleman wrote of Trooper Hawn: “I knew Ray from the time I was very young to the time of his passing. A better trooper nor a better human being has never nor will ever exist in my opinion. When I was a troubled teenager, Ray talked to me as a friend. Many things he said convinced me to change my life for the better. I was on the east coast when I learned of his passing and the tears began to flow… years later when I think of Ray, the tears still flow.” He concluded, “Ray was a big man with an even bigger heart.”
The Washington State Patrol will always remember the big man with the big smile and big heart. He died the way he lived, helping strangers and friends find their way. We remember…
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