{"id":4960,"date":"2013-12-18T11:13:40","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T16:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=4960"},"modified":"2014-01-15T14:08:14","modified_gmt":"2014-01-15T19:08:14","slug":"late-deputy-fire-chief-led-by-example-for-son-and-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/late-deputy-fire-chief-led-by-example-for-son-and-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Late Deputy Fire Chief led by example for son and community"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don Patrick was \u201cthe loudest quiet man\u201d you would ever want to meet, according to his son Brian. <\/p>\n

That is how Brian will remember his father, a retired Deputy Chief of the former Aurora Fire Department, who died last week.<\/p>\n

Brian is the third generation of his family to serve in the local fire department, which is now the Central York Fire Service, following his father and grandfather, and their influence was hard to resist.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were my biggest role models,\u201d says Brian. \u201cMy dad ended up becoming my mentor in a lot of areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the call to community service that bound the three men beyond blood. What was then a paid on call fire service, known ostensibly as a \u201cvolunteer\u201d service, Mr. Patrick says in the days his father and grandfather served, it was more like a service club to the community of like-minded individuals wanting to serve the community. But, as the community evolved, so did the fire service and, in turn, the Patrick family\u2019s ties to it grew deeper. <\/p>\n

Flags were lowered at Town Hall and at fire halls across the Central York Fire Services (CYFS) area last week in honour of Don Patrick, who died last Monday. Speaking at last week\u2019s Council meeting, Mayor Geoffrey Dawe paid tribute to the service of both Mr. Patrick and his family in their collective 108 years of community service. <\/p>\n

It was a sense of loss also shared by CYFS Chief Ian Laing who invited Don and Brian to take part in their annual Open House this October. It was a special time, he said, not only representing three generations, but it also coincided with Brian\u2019s 35th year with the service. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thankful to have people with that dedication,\u201d says Chief Laing. \u201cWhen we go back when Brian\u2019s father and grandfather started in the service, it was a very different set of circumstances. They didn\u2019t have the same apparatuses as we have\u2026but there was no change in the level of dedication, just in the ways they did it. We have all grown and benefited from their experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fall Open House also served as a way not only to pay tribute to Don, but also allowed him the chance to connect with the fire fighters of tomorrow who are training hard in colleges across Ontario. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe spent a great deal of time conversing with them about the way things were and opening their eyes to how different it is today compared to what they had to go through when he was on the job,\u201d says Chief Laing. \u201cIt was a great educational experience for those recruits and many of them were engaged in conversation with him. He really thought that was the highlight of the day \u2013 although I had hoped his highlight would be sitting in our new aerial truck! He really relished sharing his history with those who were up and coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what if the one who was up and coming was your own son? It was clear from early days that Brian was going to follow in his footsteps, with his first job working alongside him at local arenas, learning the ropes on how to prepare the ice before Tigers games, and tangling with temperamental Zambonis. <\/p>\n

He eventually followed his father into the fire service in 1977 and, in his own words, never looked back. <\/p>\n

Describing his father as the \u201cloudest quiet man I had ever met\u201d, he says his words of encouragement were often a head nod or a pat on the back, but rarely spoken in the traditional sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father could communicate with people without speaking,\u201d says Brian. \u201cHe was just one of those people who led by example. Very seldom did he complain openly or outwardly; he certainly shared his views with the family, but he just went in and gave it his all no matter what he was doing. What is happening this week speaks volumes and is quite a testament to what he was all about. My mom hasn\u2019t stopped shedding tears of pride for my father since he passed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that stands out most in my mind than anything is the love and devotion he had for my mother and our family. Right up until last week when he was still able to communicate, it was the same thing, \u2018You look after your mother.\u2019 \u2018I\u2019m on it dad. I\u2019m all over it.\u2019 Right up to his last breath on this planet on Monday, we reassured him that my sister and I were standing beside mom. \u2018We\u2019ve got her, pop. She\u2019s in good hands.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Don Patrick is survived by Monica, his wife of 56 years, son Brian, daughter Sherri, three grandchildren and one great grandchild.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don Patrick was \u201cthe loudest quiet man\u201d you would ever want to meet, according to his son Brian. <\/p>\n

That is how Brian will remember his father, a retired Deputy Chief of the former Aurora Fire Department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/2013-12-18-17.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1i0","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-25 07:15:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}