Volunteer Fire Captain Bob Haney retires after 41 years of service to our community.

The year was 1971, the average cost of a new home was $25,000, a gallon of leaded gasoline cost .40 cents, Richard Nixon was still the President, and Led Zeppelin had just released their fourth album a vinyl record called IV.  In the midst of all of that a young man named Bob Haney, fresh from the US Navy and a tour off the coast of Vietnam on board the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga, had returned to his hometown.  Looking for a way to help out, Bob applied to be a volunteer firefighter here in Forest Grove.  Times were different then, the hundreds of hours of training needed to become a volunteer hadn't existed yet and Bob was handed a set of firefighting gear and learned as he went.  Bob worked up through the ranks at the Forest Grove Fire Department, eventually becoming a Captain and a Department Safety Officer, he was also honored as our Officer of the Year in 1989.  If you have been around the small town of Forest Grove you may already know Bob, he delivered mail for the US Postal Service for a number of years until his retirement from there just a few years ago, he made Forest Grove his hometown for life where along with his wife Debbie, they raised their children Victor and Jeni in the family home.  Almost as soon as he was old enough, his son Victor followed in Bob's footsteps and also became a volunteer firefighter in our community.

On June 4, 2012 after 41 years of service to the community Captain Bob Haney retired from service with the Forest Grove Fire Department.  Joined by family, friends, and fellow firefighters from the past and present, Bob celebrated his four decades of service with a retirement party at our Forest Grove Fire Station.  Kind words were said, funny stories were told, and honors were presented on the evening of June 4, and finally right at 6:30 p.m. our dispatch center issued a final call out for Captain Bob Haney, letting him know that all was under control and thanking him for his service to our community.  With that final ringing of the historic fire station bell Bob no longer needs to crawl out of bed in the odd hours of the night, or leave family events, or even a movie on television on a rainy afternoon and his volunteer firefighter service came to a close. 

Flanked by his wife Debbie and daughter Jeni, Bob takes one last photo in uniform along with his son Victor and his wife Megan and Bob's grandchildren in front of our Engine 421.

Victor Haney presented his father Bob with a polished brass firefighter's axe as a retirement gift to recognize the four decades of being a volunteer firefighter and serving the Forest Grove Firefighter's Association.

 

On behalf of Forest Grove Fire & Rescue and a grateful community we want to thank Bob and Debbie Haney for over four decades of exceptional, dedicated, and heartfelt commitment to serving the citizens of the City of Forest Grove and the Forest Grove Rural Fire Protection District.