Resident Story: Wally Hay’s Spectacular Career in Criminal Justice

By Cypress Cove Resident Donna Miceli

In 1950, at age 21, Wallace, (“Wally”) Hay made a decision that, although he couldn’t have known it at the time, started him on a life-long career path in law enforcement and criminal justice where, according to Wally, “every day was interesting and challenging.” A native of New York City, Wally had earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Buffalo when he learned he was about to be drafted into the infantry and sent to Korea. “I thought there had to be a better possibility than that, so I decided to join the Air Force.”

As fate would have it, the Air Force was looking to train air policemen and Wally was a perfect candidate. His grandfather was on the New York City police force and, while attending college, Wally had worked part-time in the security department at the Pinkerton Detective Agency. “Training air policemen took the least amount of concentrated training,” Wally recalled. “The Air Force was in a rush to get American forces distributed around the world because they thought Russia was going to try to take over Europe again.” Within three months, Wally volunteered to go to England where he served as an Air Force police investigator and, eventually, a criminal investigator for the Office of Special Investigations (OSI). 

He was rotated back to the U.S. in 1953, first to Tucson, Arizona, and then to his hometown. “A lot of people who were sent to New York couldn’t cope with the city life, so the Air Force reached out to native New Yorkers and brought them back,” Wally commented. “I had a big advantage because my family still lived there, so I just went home. We didn’t wear uniforms, so it wasn’t even like being in the service.” 

With his commitment to the Air Force coming to an end, Wally took several civil service exams. In 1954, he began a 26-year-long career with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (commonly referred to as the ATF). His first assignment as a special agent was in Buffalo, New York. He subsequently served in New York City, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia. “All the transfers were with my approval and were advantageous to my career,” Wally noted. 

During his ATF career, he served in several different positions, including that of special agent, pilot, group supervisor, supervisor of airborne operations, chief of the liaison and technology division, staff assistant to the assistant secretary of treasury for enforcement, assistant to the director, and special agent in charge. The range of his experience included extensive air/ground electronic and visual surveillance, airborne remote sensing, development of operational and training programs relating to explosives, and the investigation of explosions.

Among his long list of accomplishments, Wally initiated the application of the Explosives Control Laws combined with the arson task force concepts to combat arsons for profit committed by organized crime. This involved bringing together federal, state and local enforcement officers with different specialties to effectively investigate and prosecute those complex cases.

“When I first became an ATF agent, the big focus was on illegal production and sale of alcohol,” Wally recalled. “But by the late sixties the market for moonshine was dying out and the agency began concentrating on firearms, which they had had jurisdiction of since 1933. By the late eighties, with the passage of a variety of new state and national laws resulting in additional responsibilities, the ATF had changed dramatically. We got involved with some strange situations, including homicides. We used to kid each other and call ourselves the bureau of last resort.”

The many unusual situations Wally found himself involved with during his time with the ATF would fill a book. One of his most unusual cases occurred when he was the special agent in charge of the Philadelphia division. It involved the investigation of the firebombing of a home that resulted in the death of a woman and her four children. It had become a huge political issue, because of racial implications and accusations that the police had knowingly convicted the wrong man for the crime. “The FBI had declined to investigate it and it was considered within the ATF’s jurisdiction because it involved an explosion,” Wally explained. “We were able to track that down and make the case that the man they convicted was not involved.” 

In 1980, while leading the Philadelphia division, Wally decided to retire. About that same time, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Crime Commission decided to step down and Wally was asked to interview for the position. “I went to the interview thinking I wouldn’t get the job, but I did and worked there for eight years,” he commented. “My job was to make the legislature and citizens of Pennsylvania aware of the impact traditional organized crime, and other organized crime, had on the community. It was a good eight years.”

Wally’s second retirement would not be the end of his career in law enforcement. One more opportunity presented itself—one that brought him and his wife, Jean, to Florida. According to Wally, when he retired from the Pennsylvania Crime Commission in 1987, he was making plans for what he wanted to do in retirement when a friend recommended him for a position in Ft. Lauderdale as the director of the National Intelligence Academy, a training facility for federal, state, local and international law enforcement officers.

“We had been vacationing in Sanibel for many years—spending holidays and school vacations there when our three kids were young—and knew Florida and Ft. Myers well,” he explained. “We had bought a condominium in the Town and River neighborhood in Ft. Myers and had been coming to it off and on for several years. This job gave us the opportunity to transition to Florida, so I got an apartment in Ft. Lauderdale and spent four years with the Academy before completely retiring in 1991. It worked out well and the rewards were certainly plentiful.” 

On a more personal level, Wally and his wife Jean, a former nurse, have been married for 68 years. They had two sons and a daughter. Sadly, one son died several years ago. Their other son was an Army helicopter pilot for 11 years before joining the Lee County Sheriff’s Department. He retired two years ago and still lives in Ft. Myers. Their daughter is a nurse and lives in Philadelphia. They also have two grandchildren

Wally and Jean moved into Cypress Cove in 2007. “We had watched it being developed, and I had gotten to know a lot of people who lived here while I was a volunteer with the AARP, helping people with their income tax returns,” Wally said. After moving to Cypress Cove, he continued his volunteer work with the AARP for several years. In addition, he became active here, serving as President of the Resident Council from 2010 to 2011, and representing his neighborhood district on the Resident Association’s finance committee. “We’ve lived here through four different administrations,” Wally noted. “It’s been interesting to see the changes that have been made over the last 14 years.”