Assistant Chief Bob Wray Marks 50 Years With GVFD

Where were you in the summer of 1971?

That was the summer President Richard Nixon signed the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, making it legal for Americans age 18  to vote.

Baseball legend Roberto Clemente was leading the Pittsburgh Pirates to a world championship season and teen heartthrob Donny Osmond was singing his way to the top of the pop charts with a song called “Go Away Little Girl.”

And in Glenwood, 24-year-old gas station owner Bob Wray was beginning a lifelong commitment to his community as a member of the Glenwood Volunteer Fire Department.

“Ed Merritt and Russ Ridenour were both really good customers (at the gas station) and both had been on the fire department for years,” Wray, an assistant chief with the department, said during a recent interview. “They started hounding me to get on the fire department. I said, ‘I guess I’ll give it a try.’ I guess, 50 years later, I still haven’t made up my mind about it.”

Wray, a Mills County native and 1965 graduate of Malvern High School, is celebrating his 50th year as a Glenwood firefighter this summer. In June, he received not only a special cake to mark the occasion during an open house at the Glenwood Fire Station, but also a seldom-given key to the city during a meeting of the city council.

To put Wray’s years of volunteer service into perspective, consider that the department turned 145 years old in 2021. Wray has been a member of the department for more than one-third of those years.

“If fire service gets into your blood, you really get enthused about it,” Wray said. “You don’t miss a call unless it’s for something real important.”

Wray has served on the department under six different chiefs – Willard Stivers, Wayne Boles, Max Hammer, Rex Palmer, Butch Fidler and Matt Gray.

No doubt, there have been numerous changes, not only within the department but also with firefighting in general over the past 50 years.

“One is the way we’re dispatched,” Wray said. “Fifty years ago, we had a radio at our house and if we worked in town, a radio at work that they called us to the fire station for service. Back in those days, the radio strictly said report to the fire station for service. Today, everybody carries a pager or a walkie-talkie and has it right with them so they know immediately what they’ve got and where they’re going.”

Firefighters are better protected and have superior equipment than they did in the 1970s, Wray said.
“When I got on, Glenwood had only two air packs – a regular air pack that was good for about 20 minutes and they had one that was called a chief’s air pack that’s good for about five minutes. Everyone else who was going to fight a fire was a smoke eater.

“Today, there’s enough air packs for everybody. Plus, there’s a slug of extra bottles so they can change the bottles out.”
The gear firefighters wear has become “better and safer” over the years as well,  Wray noted.

“When I got on, you had boots that folded down. You pulled them up almost to your crotch and the coats we wore were only slightly better than raincoats. The gear today, you can withstand quite a bit of heat.”

Wray said training is much more intensive than when he first joined the department and more attention is paid to firefighter safety.

“In 1971, we went to a call, found out what we had and just started doing what we thought we should do,” he said. “Today, one of the first things they teach you in any class is personal safety. Is it safe for me to be here? If it’s not safe for me to be here, than we better wait until it is safe.

“That’s been a big change and kind of hard for older people like me to get accustomed to.”

As a firefighter and an advanced level Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), Wray has gone out on hundreds of calls over the past 50 years – some more memorable than others.

Just months after joining the department, Glenwood firefighters were asked to assist at a structure fire in Lewis Township.

“Christmas of 1971, we were called up to Lewis Township on a mutual aid call,” Wray recalled. “There were either four or five kids that died in that house fire. One of the things I remember is standing there shooting water in a window and realizing I’m shooting water on their Christmas tree.”

There were other fires that resulted in fatalities that still stick with Wray, including one at Glenwood’s mobile home park and another at a house on East Nuckolls Street.

There were also some memorable structure fires involving businesses – the Robinson Jewelry Store in the early 1970s on the southwest corner of Town Square and the Commercial Hotel on the north side of the square in the mid 1970s.

Being a volunteer firefighter can take a toll on a person, both physically and mentally, but Wray says those who sign up to do the job are dedicated to serving and protecting their community, often sacrificing time with their families.

“You’re having a birthday party for somebody, the tone’s dropped and the fireman is gone,” he said. “It’s tough on the firefighters, but it’s the families that really put up with the stuff.

“You do this because maybe it’s going to help out a friend, a neighbor or maybe people you don’t know.”

The future of the Glenwood Volunteer Fire Department is bright, Wray believes. Morale is high and the department is comprised of a team of dedicated volunteers. Wray said he’d like to see the day when Glenwood is able to afford having at least a partially paid department and firefighters are working from a new fire station. The two buildings on South Walnut Street currently housing the department were built in the mid 1960s and 1970s and don’t meet 2021 design or building codes for fire stations.

Wray is battling some health issues at the present time, but said he plans to continue serving on the department where he is looked up to as a mentor by many of the younger firefighters. He’s also doing some administrative and historical work at the station.

“I keep thinking it’s time to retire, but right now I’m helping sort old papers and getting a bunch of history stuff up to date,” he said. “At least they’re still getting some good out of me.”