Our Local Story

Our story begins with some insight into our founder, Gary Fair. He received his Business / Marketing Degree from Sacramento State University. After graduation he went to work as a Policy Services & Computer Division Manager at Allstate Insurance Company in Sacramento. His division installed & implemented the first IBM 360 computer on the West Coast. Later accepting a sales position with Xerox Corporation. With Gary’s excellent business sense and marketing skills he wrote a sales training course for his division that was used for many years to come. His sales territories were, Montana, then Washington and onto Northern California. Gary knew he would come back to Olympia to settle down, it offered the same hometown feel as Billings, Montana where he was raised.

In 1971 Gary opened, Olympia Copy Center. Located on Washington Street, next to the iconic Olympic Theatre. He started out with several Xerox Copiers, collator and bindery supplies. It wasn’t long and the small copy shop needed more room to expand it’s services.  Two store fronts with basement storage became available across the street in the Olympian Hotel on Washington Street.

The second location gave the shop more room to grow, including storage in the basement of the hotel for equipment and paper. The equipment in the shop consisted of Xerox Copiers, a Champion Cutter and a 2650 automated press that used electrostatic paper plates with a tower collator. We offered ink color of the day at no extra charge, which was very popular. Other jobs consisted of printing specification manuals for local architects, MSGS, BJSS and others.  Flyers, forms, menus for local restaurants, thermographed cards and rubber stamps were some of the jobs that were ordered from the shop. In 1976 Gary hired his first employee, who now owns Olympia Copy & Printing.

His vision had grown to include printing, hence the name change to Olympia Copy & Printing. Gary began purchasing equipment that would be necessary to open his future print shop. Soon he had his eye on yet another location for his growing business. Basement space was available in the Kornmesser Clinic Building, on the corner of 7th and Franklin.

With additional basement space available, the equipment that Gary had been storing now had a place to be setup and start generating revenue. The commercial print orders were taken at the shop in the Olympian Hotel, and printed in the basement on Franklin Street. During this time Dr.’s son had painted the building bright orange with contrasting stripes. It wasn’t long and the growing business was also renting space upstairs. Then the day Gary had been waiting for arrived, Dr. Kornmesser agreed to sell him the building.  Again, Gary was doing extensive remodeling to the shop. Taking out walls, adding walls, building paper shelving, and lots of wiring to accommodate all the equipment. He worked tirelessly in all aspects of his shop. Moving day arrived, the presses and other equipment were moved on large dollies up the center of Washington Street over to our new location. The larger presses and equipment were lowered down the back stairwell into the basement with the help of Capital City Crane. We used the 706 entrance to the shop until all other remodeling could be completed, including plans for new exterior paint.

The shop has employed many people thru the years. Some now own their own businesses, others moved on to other shops or have new careers. Gary had expectations of perfection for all of his employees. All of his past and current employees will say to this day, Gary taught me how to work with accountability and excellence. Several of the employees hired in 1976, 1978 and 1987 are working at the shop today. The print industry has certainly made huge strides since our inception in 1971. With Gary’s astute business sense we weathered the storms of down turned economies. We have experienced the days of linotype, galley proofs, waxing copy for paste-ups, dot matrix printers, floppy disks, zip drives, CD’s, thumb drives, and now we have the cloud. We are a shop of 8 employees with long tenure that are deeply committed to one another and Olympia Copy & Printing. We are proud of our history, while continuing to embrace innovation. We have 6 Self Serv B&W / Color Copiers, 2 Digital Color Presses, 1 B&W Digital Press, Wide Format B&W, Wide Format Color, a basement with presses, bindery equipment, paper storage and more. Locally Founded – Locally Owned – Locally Serving in Downtown Olympia – 49 Years.