Ogden's fire marshal retires after 31 years

Dick McQuilkin, center, is pictured with his son, Richard, and his wife, Gail, at a recent Ogden town board meeting where he was presented a plaque for his years of service. Photo by Walt Horylev.

Ogden's fire marshal retires after 31 years

For more than 31 years, Fire Marshal Dick McQuilkin devoted himself to helping keep the residents in the Town of Ogden safe. "I inspected public places of assembly, commercial buildings and homes and apartment buildings," he said of his career.

Town of Ogden Supervisor Gay Lenhard said that McQuilkin started out as a volunteer in 1974, while he was still employed with the Ogden Telephone Company. "He would use his vacation time from that company in order to attend classes, be trained and stay certified," she said. "Although he received a small yearly stipend for most of that time, in more recent years the town was able to put him on the payroll and provide him with compensation commensurate with the responsibilities of the position."

Lenhard commended McQuilkin for the fact that for close to 25 years he "willingly donated countless hours to his community as our official fire marshal. Dick's past involvement of his many years of service to the Spencerport Volunteer Fire Department speaks volumes of his commitment to the community."

McQuilkin started his career as a fireman more than 50 years ago in the Village of Spencerport. "I was the chief from 1968 to 1972 and when that was done I knew we had to do something with the code enforcement in the village so we started working on fire codes for the town and village," he said. "I volunteered to be the fire marshal after we had the codes adopted in 1974 and that led to the career."

The biggest changes he witnessed throughout the years involved sprinkler system requirements in commercial structures. "I also worked a lot with people helping them realize they needed to keep their exit doors unblocked in case of an emergency and also worked with them on the little things like making sure there were working smoke alarms and that they weren't piling things up around the water heaters or furnaces," he said.

McQuilkin's dedication and commitment to the community earned him the 1999 Spencerport Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year Award.

When asked what he will miss about the job, he said, "I'm going to miss meeting and helping people. I'd like to think that I got some people on the right track by bringing them up to code and that it paid off for them in terms of keeping them safe."

On behalf of the Ogden Town Board and the residents of Ogden, Lenhard presented him with a plaque at a recent board meeting as a thank you for his years of dedication and service to the community.

McQuilkin said he isn't quite ready to retire just yet and plans to remain active by working at the police department performing equipment maintenance.