NAMES IN THE NEWS
Garry L. Briese, executive director of the Florida chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians, has been selected as the executive director of the International Association of Fire Chiefs. Currently a reserve battalion chief in Orange County, FL, Briese has nearly 20 years of fire service experience as a career and volunteer firefighter.
To bolster its master’s degree program in fire protection engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute added a full-time director and a full-time faculty member to its Center for Firesafety Studies.
David A. Lucht, who has been director of the center on a part-time basis since the program’s inception in 1979, assumes fulltime duties. In 1975, Lucht was appointed deputy administrator of the then newlyformed National Fire Prevention and Control Administration (now the United States Fire Administration) by President Gerald R. Ford. In that position, Lucht played a key role in the start-up of the federal fire program and had responsibility for such operations as the National Fire Data Center and the National Fire Academy as well as national programs in public fire education and technology development. Lucht has a bachelor’s degree in fire protection and safety engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology and was appointed State Fire Marshal of Ohio by Governor John Gilligan in 1973.
Craig Beyler, a fire researcher, joins the center as a full-time professor this fall. He is currently serving as a part-time adjunct professor. Beyler has directed his research toward an understanding of the process of ignition and the mathematical modeling of fire development, and is developing teaching materials and laboratory experiments on combustion chemistry as it relates to fire protection engineering. Beyler, a fire protection engineering graduate of the University of Maryland, earned a master’s degree in fire safety from the University of Edinburg, Scotland, and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University. He was awarded a Ph.D. in engineering sciences from Harvard University.
The new address for the Washington, D.C., offices of both the National Fire Protection Association and the Fire Marshals Association of North America is 1110 Vermont Ave., N.W., Suite 1210, Washington, D.C. 20005. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has designated James McNeill to take over as associate director for training and fire programs for FEMA. If approved, McNeill will replace current acting associate director Clyde A. Bragdon, administrator of the U.S. Fire Administration. Bragdon has served as acting associate director since last summer when Fred J. Villella resigned the post of associate director under charges of mismanagement.
The White House must approve the McNeill nomination before sending his name to Congress for confirmation. This process is expected to take months. Meanwhile, McNeill will work with FEMA as a consultant.
McNeill currently is assistant for special planning in the Department of Defense’s International Security Affairs Office.
The National Fire Academy selected 25 members of local fire departments throughout the United States to participate in its new command and staff training program which began May 20.
The program, available to chief officers and/or senior captains on current promotion lists, is designed to provide a coordinated, highly intensified approach to mid-level fire officer training. Students must complete six resideht courses over a 13-week period and use their new skills in a special project that must be completed within six months after they return to their departments. Students successfully finishing the project will then receive a certificate of achievement signifying official completion of the program, which is part of the National Fire Academy’s master curriculum plan.
At presstime, 24 members had been selected to participate in the program: Michael D. Bradley, Hayward, CA, Fire Department; Richard Brumbelow, Austin, TX, Fire Department; Dean E. Cathey, Los Angeles City, CA, Fire Department; David Corcoran, New York City Fire Department, Brooklyn, NY; Terence J. Croke, Palm Beach County Fire/ Rescue Department, West Palm Beach, FL; J. Scott Cullers, Fairfax County, VA, Fire & Rescue Department; Charles Dougherty, Chicago, IL, Fire Department; Stephen K. Dunbar, Boston Fire Department, Roxbury, MA; Donald M. Forsyth, Orange County, CA, Fire Department; Jackie W. Gallion, Anchorage, AK, Fire Department; Christopher C. Gardner, City of Seward, AK; Larry B. Green, Fullerton, CA, Fire Department; Robert E. Hardt, Aiken, SC, Department of Public Safety; Michael C. Johnson, Seattle, WA, Fire Department; Bruce McGill, Salt Lake City, UT, Fire Department; Michael J. Mulderrig, Philadelphia, PA, Fire Department; Thomas B. Mullaney, Orange County, FL, Fire Department; Robert J. Oliver, Phoenix, AZ, Fire Department; James K. Reardon, Department of Fire Service, New Haven, CT; Vernon L. Simmons, City of Fort Worth, TX, Fire Department; Clarence R. Ward, Baltimore County Fire Department, Towson, MD; Charles W. Wentzel, Cincinnati, OH, Fire Department; Billy C. Whitwell, Colorado Springs, CO, Fire Department; and Richard F. Williams, Gainesville, FL, Fire Department.
