NAMES IN THE NEWS
Deputy Chief Edward Fitzgerald has been elected to serve a two year term as the president of the Fire Chiefs Association of New York City.
Chief Fitzgerald has been a member of the uniformed force since 1957 and has been a chief officer since 1972. He holds an accounting degree and was awarded the Charles H. Revson Fellowship for study at Columbia University.
Fitzgerald believes that the attempts to politicize top management positions in the fire department are an effort to undermine the influence of the uniformed forces and to increase the influence of “statistical and money managers” in the department. He believes fire departments should be managed by fire chiefs not “Harvard MBA’s.”
Gordon W. Maycumber, deputy chief of the Syracuse Fire Department, has been named director of Cornell University Life Safety Services. Maycumber takes the place of Eugene J. Dymek who retired in 1983 after serving as director of safety programs since 1967.
A member of the Syracuse Fire Department since 1949, his new responsibilities include fire protection and prevention as well as other safety programs at the Ithaca campus and all offcampus facilities except the Medical College. The Life Safety organization operates on a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day week.
Donald R. Yuelling, of the Cincinnati, OH, Fire Prevention Bureau, has been appointed chairman of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Technical Committee on Fire Hazards of Materials. Sanford Davis, head of fire performance and evaluation at the Center for Fire Research (CFR), U.S. National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C., has been appointed chairman of the NFPA Technical Committee on Fire Tests. The committee is responsible for development and review of standards on fire test procedures. James F. Wheeler, environmental engineer with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., has been appointed chairman of the NFPA Technical Committee on Waste Water Treatment Plants. The committee is responsible for documents on criteria for safeguarding against fire or explosions in waste water treatment plants.
After 31 years with the New York City Fire Department and four citations for personal bravery, John J. O’Rourke was appointed chief of departments on March 2, 1984.
O’Rourke rose through the fire service ranks, promoted to lieutenant in 1963; captain in 1969; battalion chief in 1976; deputy chief, bureau of fire, in 1980; and deputy assistant chief in 1981, serving as executive officer for the bureau of support services, deputy assistant chief of operations, and chief of training. He was designated acting assistant chief in 1984.
As chief of department, O’Rourke plans to make training his foremost priority; “Training is the cornerstone to keeping our firefighters safe.” O’Rourke graduated magna cum laude from New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice with a B.S. in fire science.
Chief Kenneth E. McCullough has been named director of the city of Miami Department of Fire, Rescue and Inspection Services.
Chief McCullough was appointed director of the 809 employee department on May 2, 1984. A lifelong resident, he has been a member of the Miami Fire Department since 1952.
His career has encompassed every major aspect of the fire service. He has served as a rescue commander, assistant director of training, chief of fire-rescue division, fire marshal and deputy chief of administration.
Chief McCullough replaces Chief Herman W. Brice, who retired to become the top fire official in Palm Beach County.
Dr. Thomas W. Dawson, formally the assistant to the fire chief of Houston, TX, was appointed as the state fire marshal for the state of New Hampshire. He replaces Raymond Dewhurst who has become fire chief of the Durham-University of New Hampshire Fire Department.
Dawson holds a doctorate in fire administration and an associate degree in fire protection technology.
