He answered the call for volunteers
Over the years, Myron Schaeffer was a familiar visitor to open house receptions sponsored by the Prospect Heights Fire Protection District.
As the department displayed its fleet of new equipment and growing professional staff, Mr. Schaeffer provided firsthand accounts of the all-volunteer department, that use to cover the community in its more rural days.
Mr. Schaeffer died Sunday. The 56-year resident of Arlington Heights was 86.
In 1952, Mr. Schaeffer and his wife Adele moved to an unincorporated area that later was annexed by Arlington Heights. However, at the time, the Prospect Heights Fire Protection District protected the area, and it needed volunteers.
Mr. Schaeffer had grown up in Chicago and worked in the financial industry, first for Motorola, before entering the banking field. He had served in Navy during the Korean conflict, and he drew on his fitness and willingness to serve when stepping up to become a volunteer firefighter.
"They needed people, and he went," says his wife, Adele, of his firefighting calling, which came in 1954.
Current Prospect Heights Fire Chief Rick Gould describes the fire district in the 1950s and 1960s as rural, made up mostly of farms.
"In those days, it was an all-volunteer department, with no paid professionals," Gould says. "They carried pager radios and responded from their homes."
Their base was a small, one-bay fire station located near the intersection of Camp McDonald Road and Rt. 83, where the city's new fire station is located today. In it, they stored their fleet of five rural ladder trucks, which carried tanks of water on them.
Family members recall the radio alerting the firefighters to respond, as well as telephone calls on old fashioned party lines.
"I remember we used to sit in front of the radio and listen to what was going on, just to make sure he was OK," says his daughter, Jill Rossol. "Even when we go away, visiting relatives, he'd bring the radio with him, just in case he was needed.
"He loved being part of it," Rossol adds.
Besides fighting fires, Mr. Schaeffer participated in other department responsibilities, including launching the July 4th fireworks every year and promoting fire safety with families during the annual carnival.
According to department records, Mr. Schaeffer served with the department from 1954 to 1967.
Although the fire district formed in 1944, it wouldn't be until 1978 that it was staffed with full-time professional firefighters.
Over the years, Mr. Schaeffer watched it grow to include 10 full-time professionals operating two fire stations. The department now employs a staff of 70 people, and has a fleet that includes 13 fire trucks, two full-time ambulance crews, and a crash truck for the site at Chicago Executive Airport.
Besides his wife and daughter, Mr. Schaeffer is survived by two grandsons, and one great grandson. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Lonnie (Robert) McDuffie.
Visitation will take place from 4-9 p.m. Thursday, before an 11 a.m. funeral service on Friday, both at Lauterburg & Oehler Funeral Home, 2000 E. Northwest Highway in Arlington Heights.