[BobbyB]

Community turns out to honor firefighter's life

Published: January 9, 2008





Oregon Fire Service Honor Guard bagpiper Wylie McKinnon faces the bugler playing "Taps" at the conclusion of Tim Wilson's graveside service.
Photo Helen Hollyer


By Helen Hollyer

The bell slowly tolled once…twice…three times, calling all firefighters and apparatus back to quarters at the fire station. Volunteer firefighter Tim Wilson's name was called for the final time. The siren wailed and slowly, ever so slowly, died away.

There was no response; Wilson was unable to return to quarters.

Only 44 years old, he had fallen, not to smoke or heat in a burning structure, but to the inexorable ravages of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a merciless disease that progressively robbed his body of its ability to function.

The final call to quarters took place near the conclusion of a memorable Jan. 5 celebration of Wilson's life combined with a formal firefighter's funeral ceremony that filled Cottage Grove's Riverside Church of God with grieving family members, friends and fellow firefighters.

The service revealed Wilson to have been a passionate man, whose love of nature's beauty and the calling of firefighting was surpassed only by his devotion to his family and his faith.

A gifted photographer of the outdoors, where he spent time hunting, hiking and exploring with his family and friends, he was also devoted to firefighting, having first volunteered for the Cottage Grove Fire Department 12 years ago, and continuing with South Lane County Fire & Rescue until he became physically incapable of attending drills.

Wilson and his wife Shelley taught Sunday school at Cottage Grove Faith Center, where they and their daughters Rebecca and Alisha worshiped.

A graduate of Cottage Grove High School and Lane Community College, Wilson had worked in the forest products industry and, for the last eight years, for Lane County Public Works.

Early Saturday morning, Boy Scouts placed American flags along Cottage Grove's Main Street, and Brad Cohen's 10-foot by 19-foot American garrison flag was suspended above the street from two pieces of firefighting apparatus, Cohen's 1983 American LaFrance ladder truck and SLCF&R's Telesqurt aerial pumper.

In mid-morning, after South Lane County Fire & Rescue firefighters gave the equipment that would be used during the ceremony a final cleaning, Wilson's casket, covered by an American flag, was loaded into a black-draped Medic Unit and taken to the church.

Oregon Fire Service Honor Guard members from Sisters/Camp Sherman, Hood River, Crooked River and Bend fire districts joined three SLCF&R firefighters, all wearing formal dress uniforms, some carrying chrome-headed fire axes, to bring the casket into the sanctuary, position it before the altar and place Wilson's turnout coat, helmet and boots in front of it.

From then on, two Oregon Fire Service Honor Guard members stood at attention beside the casket, replaced every ten minutes throughout the service by another pair who approached, stood directly in front of their counterparts, slowly raised their hands in joint salutes and took their places while the replaced pair retreated down the center aisle.

Three of Wilson's photographs, those of a whale's tail as it dived under the waters of the Pacific Ocean, a male bald eagle and a bull bison surmounted by a brilliant rainbow, flanked the casket.

Ushers gave smaller versions of Wilson's photographs to funeral attendees as remembrances.

"Faith, hope and compassion are the words that best described Tim," said Tony Graves, a friend who first met Tim when they were training to become volunteer firefighters. "Anything you needed, if you called Tim and said it was for the community, he stepped up to the plate."

"Tim was quiet and unassuming," said retired SLCF&R Deputy Chief Andy McClean, "he wanted to know how everything worked. He was a pleasure to be around; he was there to serve."

Tim and Shelley's pastor, Jim Jenkins of Cottage Grove Faith Center, remembering Tim as a special individual who was greatly beloved in the community, asked mourners to share memories of their friend.

One of Tim's co-workers at Lane County Public Works elicited a laugh when she said that although Tim often threatened to run over her lunch pail with his dump truck, she knew he wouldn't actually do it because her pail always contained an extra doughnut for him.

"Tim never said a negative word," said a volunteer firefighter describing Tim's taking him under his wing when he joined the fire district.

"When everybody else ran out [of a burning building], he ran in," said Jenkins, speaking of Wilson's choice to be a firefighter. "That's who these guys are; that's who this guy was."

Tim Wilson is buried at Sears Cemetery, in a hillside meadow surrounded on three sides by towering Douglas firs and open to western sunsets. It seems a fitting resting-place for a person who loved nature as much as he did.


http://www.thecreswellchronicle.com/...?story_no=4768