In Memory Of Our Brother
Our Chief
Skip
Todd, Stephanie, Heather, Nicky, Gwen,
you all were very special and important to your dad, there are many times he
would tell stories of you guys, whether it was coaching Todd at little league or
the time Todd was 3 or 4 and took his lunch box and clobbered Skip over the head
while he was asleep on the couch. Or
Steph’s adventures sneaking out of the house, or telling everyone that you
were getting married, then you and Mike would be making him a grandpa. Heather,
he would tell the guy’s stories about having to drag you out of bed when you
were small to respond to calls, and he was proud to tell everyone when you went
to work for the A.T.F. Nicky and
Gwen, Skip never referred to you as step-daughters, when asked or if he was
telling stories, you were his daughters. Skip
would say I have a son and 4 daughters. Skip
would talk about Nicky, and when she was younger she would see how far she could
push that envelope with mom and dad. But
he also would say how you would go out of your way to make sure he did or had
what he needed, or how you would give the nurse at the hospital what for because
he wasn’t getting what he needed. And
he would talk about his private nurse Gwen, how she would make sure he got the
right care when he was not in the hospital, or even if he was in the hospital.
And he knew you all would be ok, he knew his girls all made good choices
in the men in their lives, he would refer to all of them as the boy’s.
The grand kids, Skip enjoyed each moment
spent with each of you; he was concerned about each of you, the tone in his
voice would change, it would have excitement in it when he talked of the
grandsons going to Missouri with him, or taking Nathan and Evan to a movie.
Although he always would have to explain which grandsons were who,
because of all the Michaels in the family. He
would attend Michael’s soccer games or Michael’s football games.
He was always concerned about the grand daughters, whether it was snowing
and Morgan was driving to school or if Britney’s car was running ok.
He would refer to Britney as his little mother, Britney stayed with him
for 8 weeks while Nancy was in Indy updating her training to return to work. Skip
is also a great-grandfather, and as Kenedi and Peyton and the other great-grand
children yet to come get older, I am
sure that you older kids will be telling stories and making sure they know who
pa-pa is and how special he was to each of you.
Lorain, his lifelong friend, I am sure you were more of a sister, he had
a special place in his family for you; he always thought of you and included you
and Ed in the family activities. Carl,
Skip would talk of you and Todd on many occasions, stories of your escapades as
kids, also of your golf games you, Todd and your dad would make with him.
Missouri, Jr. we would hear a lot of
you, Skip had many stories of his times and escapades in Missouri hunting or
just visiting. I now wish I would
have went with Skip, he would ask if I wanted to go but things just never worked
out so I could. I really want to see
this cabin he would talk of. There
was many stories about Jr. and his family, Mike and his son Teddy, Larry May,
Dave Sheppard the Boys and the hunting trips.
Skips was a story teller, the thing is, they are fact not fiction even
his story of the infamous Joint snake. Skip
would keep all of our full attention when he told his stories.
Skip was the type of chief that never
wanted accolades or credit for something, he treated each of us fairly and
always put us before himself, he always put everyone before himself.
He always made sure the town was safe, even Wednesday night when our
whole department went marching into the Porter Hospital at 9pm to visit him he
was thinking of the town. We took 2
fire engines to the hospital parked them on LaPorte ave. in front of his room,
wheeled his bed over so he could see out the window and put all the emergency
lights on. First thing he did was
lift his head up, looked out the window and seen the trucks, then he looked at
me and shook his head, I knew what he was thinking, even though he could not
speak he wanted to know who was covering the town.
I had to reassure him we had Liberty covering our station for calls. Skip
had a way of showing his disapproval, it was not by raising his voice or yelling
at you, he would just get that little smirk smile
with the corner of his mouth and shake his head.
We only would see that occasionally, so we knew if we got it he was not
happy. The paper had one story of
such an occasion, it was not quit correct. We
had a firefighter that had been moving the aerial truck and accidentally struck
the big tree across from the station, it crunched the basket pretty bad.
Skip had recently quit smoking about 2 months before and was not at the
station at the time. We had the
truck around back of the station, Skip pulled up, got out of the truck walked
around the front of the aerial looked up at the basket, got that little smirk
smile and shook his head, he got in his truck never saying a word, went to the
gas station and got a pack of cigarettes. The
firefighter later went to his office and said, you’ve got to say something.
“At least call me a so and so”, actually it was a little more of an
expletive. Skip said “ok, you so
and so go mail this” he threw him an envelope it was the insurance forms.
Skip even made our kids feel special; I guess maybe Steve’s boy Nick made me think of that and fully understand how much, a couple of us were in the chief’s office Friday and Steve was telling us he had been trying to explain to Nick and Jake that Skip passed away. At first Nick must not been sure which chief Steve was talking about then it clicked and Nick said the Sucker Chief. To Nick, Skip was the Sucker Chief. Skip always kept candy in the Firefighter Cookie jar that Nancy’s dad gave him on his desk. Little did everyone know, Donna was Skip’s candy connection. Skip would go over to the clerk’s office if he ran out of candy and get some from the basket on her desk, so if any of the kids came in he made sure he had candy in the jar. Skip would talk to all the kids that came in, weather it was our kids or kids there for fire prevention programs, as they pass his office door he would say hi or how are you? As they pass. Skip always thought of the kids, he would post drawings they would make for him and they would stay for years, he never took them down. Until the last, Skip’s concern was his family, friends and fire department, Skip would be so proud of all the guys, as I am, how you came together, supported each other. We will be Ok, and we will go on and move forward, we will never forget the lessons he taught. Skip you fought long and hard it is time for us to take command.
Chief
Highwood Rest in peace