Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 10, 1994 TAG: 9409120045
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELISSA CURTIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROANOKE LENGTH: Medium
On Sept.1, he retired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation after 32 years as a special agent.
In another week, Canfield and his wife, Virginia, will celebrate their 36th wedding anniversary.
And in December, Canfield's youngest son of eight children will graduate from college.
"I feel proud," said Canfield, 57, as he relaxed in his Roanoke home, surrounded by photographs of his smiling family.
In Canfield's 32 years with the FBI, he saw 15 different special agents in charge at the Richmond headquarters, worked on more than 4,000 different cases, and saw such technological advances as beepers and DNA analysis revolutionize FBI investigations. He never had to kill anyone.
For the past 30 years, Canfield has dealt with kidnappings, murders, armed robberies and other cases in the 20 counties of Southwest Virginia, including the New River Valley.
Canfield said he remembers idolizing former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and wanting to be an FBI agent when he was 14 years old.
"I wanted to save little children and arrest the bad guys," he said. "I knew the FBI did good things, and I wanted to be a part of those good things."
After graduating from Niagara University in New York on an ROTC scholarship, Canfield served as an infantry officer in the army.
In 1962, he was hired by the FBI. After two years, he was transferred to Roanoke, where he has lived and worked for the past 30 years, working on cases throughout Southwest Virginia.
His most bizarre case - and the first time he came across murder victims - was when he found two adults bound, gagged and shot through the head in an abandoned building in Roanoke.
"That was a gross scene," he said, "but that's what police officers deal with every day across the country."
His favorite kind of case, Canfield said, is the kind he helped to solve.
"The satisfaction of knowing you arrested the right person who committed the crime and having them convicted - that is the most exciting kind of case."
But "arresting the bad guys" is not the only reason Canfield loved his job. He said the satisfaction of helping people in need is another.
"You're dealing with distraught people. They're upset. They're emotional," he said. "You have to stay calm, cool and collected ... and show them you're doing everything you can to help them with their problem."
With an average caseload of 25 investigations, Canfield said the job took up a lot of his time.
"I'd be away for days at a time," he said. "So the burden fell on my wife a lot." Which is quite a burden, considering the couple raised eight children who now range in age from 22 to 32.
During the children's younger years, Canfield said his job as an FBI agent was a mystery to them.
"I didn't talk about it a lot," he said. "I didn't want to project the image that they should worry."
He said it wasn't until his children were grown that he discovered they did worry. At a retirement party for Canfield, his oldest son told about a night when he and his brothers and sisters were watching a bank robbery in Salem on the TV news.
"The camera panned by me, and [the children] saw their father," Canfield said. ``I was pulling up my socks. My son said he thought at the time, `Maybe my father doesn't realize how serious of a job he has and how dangerous it could be.'''
But Canfield knew the dangers of the job.
The danger is over now, and Canfield has plenty of time to spend with his children and eight grandchildren.
He has planned a trip to Europe with his wife in April. He'll also writing two books about his family and his life with the FBI and as a security consultant for an art firm in New York.Although he said he won't miss the work, Canfield looks back on his FBI years fondly.
"I couldn't have had a more satisfying life serving humanity."
by CNB