Ed Smith

Ed was born at the old Carmel Hospital, raised on the Monterey Peninsula, and attended local schools, graduating from Pacific Grove High in 1971. He married his high school sweetheart, Sharron, who graduated from Monterey High School, also in 1971. They recently celebrated 41 years of marriage.

His parents, originally from Georgia, fell in love with the Monterey Peninsula when his father was stationed at Fort Ord with the U.S. Army. They settled their family here in 1945 after WWII ended. Ed has one younger brother, Doug, who served in the U.S. Army. His older brother, Phillip, also served in the U.S. Army and was killed in action in the Vietnam War in 1969.

After graduating from Monterey Peninsula College in 1973, Ed and Sharron were married and departed for college. He graduated from Sacramento State with a BA in Criminal Justice in 1975. After several years, Ed returned to college at Golden Gate University, attending night school to work on his Masters Degree. He graduated in 1983 with a Master’s of Public Administration in Federal, State & Urban Governance.

Ed and Sharron have two adult children — daughter, Amy Baj (married to Chris), lives in Florida where she is a Public Relations Director for Dell; and son, Peter finished serving in the U.S. Army in 2013 and currently is a full time student at Wichita State in Kansas. They have two grandchildren, Liam Smith, five-years-old, and Hadley Baj, 5-months-old.

Ed started his exciting law enforcement career beginning with the Seaside Police Department in 1976. In 1980 Ed transferred to the Monterey Police Department and rose through the ranks serving as a police officer, field training officer, detective, and as a police Sergeant serving in every division within the department as a supervisor. Ed was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 2003 and retired from Monterey in 2006.

After a brief retirement Ed returned to duty in 2007 with the Desert Hot Springs Police Department in Riverside County, and retired in 2011 as a Division Commander. During Ed’s police career he served five different police chiefs and served for a total of 34 years.