EDWARD S. COHN, former chief of the Ramsey (NJ) Fire Department and an advocate of emergency service volunteerism, has passed away. He served as chief of the Ramsey Fire Department from 1991 to 1994. He previously was a volunteer in the Waldwick, New Jersey, ambulance and fire services.
Cohn launched the promotional campaign called “What If No One Answered the Call?” (Fire Engineering, August 1996, p.12) to address the decline in fire and emergency service volunteerism. The campaign spread nationwide and included privately sponsored billboards, pamphlets, posters, a video, and placemats that urged people to call (800) FIRELINE to learn more about public safety volunteers.
In 1996, New Jersey Governor Christine Whitman awarded Cohn the Governor’s Volunteer Award for his efforts with the New Jersey Fire Safety Commission’s Public Education Advisory Council. He was chairman of the Committee on Volunteer Recruitment and Retention and also was a director of the National Fire Council for two years.
DAN CHIDESTER has been named chief of the Fullerton (CA) Fire Department. A 27-year veteran of the department, he served as firefighter-paramedic, engineer, captain, battalion chief, division chief, and training officer. Chidester was operations division chief and acting chief at the time of the appointment.
THOMAS K. WANSTALL has passed away. He worked as a freelance fire photographer and photojournalist, documenting a quarter century of fires in Yonkers and New York City from the late 1960s through the early 1990s. His photos, which appeared in Fire Engineering, the Yonkers Firefighter newsletter, and his books Fire in Focus and FIRE: At War with the Red Devil, illustrated many of the technical aspects of firefighting.
