From the Publishers Desk
departments
Editor Jim Casey to retire
We guess you are aware by now that our editor, Jim Casey, is retiring effective January 1, 1981, after more than eighteen years of plugging away as writer and editor for Fire Engineering. And we surely hate to see him go.
Jim began his lifetime career with the fire service back in 1938 as a probationary fireman in the New York City Fire Department—hanging on the side of a Hook and Ladder. In the next 24 1/2 years he acquired an intimacy with fire prevention and fire suppression that few possess. He was a firefighter, chauffeur, qualified motor and pump operator, battalion chiefs aide, company officer, fire prevention inspector and training instructor. His last two years was spent as editor of WNYF Magazine, the renowned house organ of the NYFD.
With this background of fire fighter, writer and editor, it was only natural that the then management of Fire Engineering kept an eye on him. And when a slot opened up on our staff in May 1962, Jim was quickly recruited and as quickly accepted to start a second career “but in the same great field,” he stresses.
In his more than eighteen years with us, Jim Casey has made his name one of the most well known in the national and even international fire service. He has written scores of articles, and his editorials have been regularly quoted and frequently reprinted.
He didn’t, however, spend all his time behind a desk. As a lecturer, panelist and just plain attendee, Jim traveled far and wide in the United States and Canada. He even went to Portugal for a two-week series of lectures to the Portuguese fire service—on EMS, one of his favorite subjects.
But Jim Casey did more than just edit a magazine and travel. He edited and wrote books—in his off hours, whenever he could find time. His first effort was the Third Edition of the Fire Chiefs Handbook which he started in 1965 and finished in 1967. This edition of “the bible of the fire service” was probably the all time best-seller of fire service literature. It sold some 70,000 copies in eight years, and probably would still be selling if Jim hadn’t decided to put out the Fourth Edition in 1978, an update, which is also on its way to becoming a best-seller. His other major work was the Second Edition of Fire Service Hydraulics. In between, he managed to edit High Rise and Life Safety and Fire Fighting Principles and Practices.
All in all, Jim spent a busy and productive 18 years with us, and, as we said in the beginning, we hate to see him go. He says that he is going to do nothing but watch clouds and work on his handicap. But we hope to keep him in the wings as sort of an editorat-large.
