'Keep the Wreath Red' founder from Lisle dies

Members of the Lisle-Woodridge Fire Protection District are remembering a former chief who was credited with starting a holiday fire prevention program used by departments across the state.

Paul Boecker, who founded the “Keep the Wreath Red” program, died Sunday morning from an undisclosed illness, officials said. The longtime Lisle resident was 80.

“We lost a great guy,” Fire Chief Tom Freeman said Monday. “He was a tremendous individual both personally and professionally.”

Bureau Chief Jim French remembered Boecker as a “genuinely good person” who was instrumental in turning the volunteer department into a full-time professional fire district.

“He probably was the most fair person I have ever worked for,” French said. “He epitomized what you would want a leader to be. He always put his employees first.”

Boecker, who served as chief from 1971 until his retirement in 1994, was “very open-minded” and willing to try to new things.

“You never felt bad bringing a new idea to him because he would say, ‘Let's try it,'” French said.

In 1954, Boecker was a 23-year-old part-time lieutenant with the Naperville Fire Department when he came up with an idea that has become a widely used fire prevention program.

As part of the Keep the Wreath Red program, wreaths with red lights are placed outside many fire stations. For every fire related to holiday decorations, a red bulb is replaced with a white one.

Boecker brought the program to Lisle-Woodridge in 1971 when he became the district's first paid chief. Nine years later, it was adopted by the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association.

“It was one of those ideas where everybody just slapped their forehead and said, ‘Yeah, this is what we've got to,” Freeman said. “It's a great visual. You go by your fire station and see if your hometown has had any fires that were caused by Christmas decorations.”

While the Keep the Wreath Red program grew in popularity, Boecker saw his fire protection district expand to include five fire stations and more than 80 employees.

“He built the place from the ground up,” said Freeman, who became chief when Boecker retired. “He was an incredibly personable individual and ahead of his time professionally.”

Although it was never Boecker's objective to pursue accolades, they “just came naturally to him,” French said. In addition to nine awards of commendation during his career, Boecker received four awards of merit and the district's Firefighter of the Year Award in 1993. The Illinois Fire Chiefs Association gave him a Fire Chief of the Year Award in 1982 and named him a fire chief emeritus in 2008.

Friends say Boecker was committed to providing education and training. “He recognized early on that when you are through learning, you're through,” Freeman said.

Boecker served as a charter member of the Education Research Foundation for the state fire chiefs association. He also spent more than 30 years as a field instructor for the Illinois Fire Service Institute and was chairman of the Illinois Fire College from 1972 to 1996.

“There were so many things he did,” French said. “He has impacted thousands of firefighters across this nation.”

Visitation will be from 2 to 9 p.m. Thursday and 9 to 10:45 a.m. Friday at Trinity Lutheran Church, 110 Kimberly Way, Lisle. A fire department walk-through is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday.

Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Friday at the church. Interment will take place at Naperville Cemetery, 750 S. Washington St., in Naperville.