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In his 37 years with the Neosho Fire Department, Greg Hickman has had his good days, his bad days and his awful days.
But no two days were ever the same.
And that’s what Hickman said he loved about life in at the fire station in Neosho.
And that’s what he’ll miss the most when he officially retires from the department on July 30.
Hickman, a Neosho born-and-bred native who graduated from Neosho High School in 1968, will retire from his position as fire chief he has held since 2003.
The 59-year-old husband to wife, Gay, and father to daughters, JeaDeana and Jayleena Mae, joined the department as a volunteer in 1972 and as a full-time firefighter in 1973. He left a job working at La-Z-Boy Midwest for life at the fire department, making a salary of $248 per month. He moved up the ranks of the firehouse throughout his nearly four decades of service. He was promoted to engineer in 1981, served as captain from 1991 to 2000, as assistant chief from 2000-2003, and as chief from 2003 to the present.
Hickman’s retirement from the department came on the same day the city of Neosho announced cuts to his staff. Mike Eads, current deputy fire chief, will be promoted to fire chief. The deputy fire chief position will not be filled by the city at this time, according to information released by Neosho interim city manager Harlan Moore on Wednesday.
Sitting at his desk in the office located outside the entrance of the fire department’s Station 1 in downtown Neosho, Hickman reflected on his 37-year career with his hometown fire depart-ment. Behind him on a bookshelf rests two firemen’s dress caps — one the first cap he wore when he joined the department in 1973 and the other given to him as a gift.
Next to the caps are the various badges Hickman wore during his time of service to the city. There is one badge missing — his assistant chief badge — which is now worn by Eads. Hickman said on his final day of service as chief, he would pass along his chief badge to Eads as well.
On one wall of Hickman’s office is a picture frame put together by his family. The frame features a T-shirt that reads, “My Daddy is a Fireman.” On a ledge near the window, Hickman has a display of collectibles — all related to the profession he dedicated his life to.
In his 37 years with the Neosho Fire Department, Greg Hickman has had his good days, his bad days and his awful days.
But no two days were ever the same.
And that’s what Hickman said he loved about life in at the fire station in Neosho.
And that’s what he’ll miss the most when he officially retires from the department on July 30.
Hickman, a Neosho born-and-bred native who graduated from Neosho High School in 1968, will retire from his position as fire chief he has held since 2003.
The 59-year-old husband to wife, Gay, and father to daughters, JeaDeana and Jayleena Mae, joined the department as a volunteer in 1972 and as a full-time firefighter in 1973. He left a job working at La-Z-Boy Midwest for life at the fire department, making a salary of $248 per month. He moved up the ranks of the firehouse throughout his nearly four decades of service. He was promoted to engineer in 1981, served as captain from 1991 to 2000, as assistant chief from 2000-2003, and as chief from 2003 to the present.
Hickman’s retirement from the department came on the same day the city of Neosho announced cuts to his staff. Mike Eads, current deputy fire chief, will be promoted to fire chief. The deputy fire chief position will not be filled by the city at this time, according to information released by Neosho interim city manager Harlan Moore on Wednesday.
Sitting at his desk in the office located outside the entrance of the fire department’s Station 1 in downtown Neosho, Hickman reflected on his 37-year career with his hometown fire depart-ment. Behind him on a bookshelf rests two firemen’s dress caps — one the first cap he wore when he joined the department in 1973 and the other given to him as a gift.
Next to the caps are the various badges Hickman wore during his time of service to the city. There is one badge missing — his assistant chief badge — which is now worn by Eads. Hickman said on his final day of service as chief, he would pass along his chief badge to Eads as well.
On one wall of Hickman’s office is a picture frame put together by his family. The frame features a T-shirt that reads, “My Daddy is a Fireman.” On a ledge near the window, Hickman has a display of collectibles — all related to the profession he dedicated his life to.
On the day his retirement was announced, Hickman struggled to find the words as he reflected on his career and his life in the firehouse.
“The next run is almost always different than the last one,” Hickman said. “Something will always be different.”
Getting his start for .90 cents an hour
Hickman got his first taste of firefighting working for the Missouri Department of Conservation at the age of 15. He worked after school and on weekends for 90 cents an hour. He credits his older brother for getting him interested in conservation. When Hickman was 7 years old, his brother went out west after graduating from high school and worked in the big woods of Oregon. When his brother came home he had several stories to share with Greg, and that’s how the latter became hooked on working the hose and ladder.
Hickman would later work several forest fires in the western United States during his firefighting career.
After Hickman graduated high school in 1968, he attended the University of Missouri with a major in forestry. But university life didn’t suit Hickman, and he soon returned to Neosho and attended junior college. He also went back to work for the Conservation Commission as a secondary towerman.
He would marry his high school sweetheart, Gay, in 1971, and that’s when he realized he needed “a real job.”
He went to work at the local La-Z-Boy Midwest factory for six months. Again, the job inside a factory didn’t suit Hickman. He needed to work in the fresh air, and that’s when he found full-time employment with the Neosho Fire Department on Jan. 27, 1973.
“After I got married I basically needed a job,” Hickman said. “That first year we were married we lived on a piece of property that my parents owned, so it did not cost us any rent. We needed our own spot. I got a job with La-Z-Boy and worked there, but one day Gay came home and said she met a girl she knew in high school, Nancy Sexton, and the fire department had an opening. I had spent a little time helping the fire department as a volunteer on runs here and there, and I thought I would try for the job.
“I put in my application. There was an opening in the early part of January that I applied for, but they gave that to another individual. A couple of weeks later there was an opening, and the department called me and asked if I wanted the job. I, of course, said, ‘yes.’”
It’s a job Hickman has held since that day in January 1973.
Still an urge to ‘go west’
It took Hickman 35 years, but in 1994 after hearing the stories of his brother working fires in the timberland of the American west, Hickman made his first trip to help fight a western fire. At the age of 43, as a captain with the Neosho Fire Department, Hickman landed near Challis, Idaho, and then traveled to the McCall fire which ended at more than 100,000 acres burned. In the years that followed, Hickman went with a crew to fight fires in California and Yellowstone National Park.
Once Hickman got a taste of battling fires in the West, he couldn’t get enough. He would later assist in fire and recovery efforts in Wyoming, Colorado, Oregon, twice in Washington State, New Mexico, Utah, twice in Idaho and also assisted on the Columbia Recovery mission in Texas. Hickman worked as a helicopter crewmember during many of those trips.
“It has been interesting working as a helicopter crew member (HECM) for the past few years and getting to meet new people, make new friends, getting to see some of these individuals in different places, and being able to see wildfire from another angle,” Hickman wrote on his personal website.
“It was a privilege”
In his time spent as fire chief since 2003, Hickman said his proudest moment is that he has been “able to do the job.” He’s not one to rattle off a laundry list of accomplishments during his time as chief. What Hickman will miss the most after his retirement will be his brotherhood in the firehouse, and being able to serve the residents of his hometown.
“It was a privilege to be able to do the job,” Hickman said. “There have been good days and there have been bad days. Most proud of? I don’t know. Accomplishments? I am most proud of being able to work with a group of dedicated individuals. In the position of chief, I have had to terminate only one person. Other individuals moved on to other jobs and other departments, and we had to bury two people in my time as chief. I am also proud of how the department grew. It wasn’t because of anything that I had done. I was just proud to be a part of it. Through all the years of being an engineer and captain, it was great to work with the guys. And then, as deputy chief and now chief, you have to separate yourself a little bit, and I probably separated myself too much. I will miss the enjoyment of watching the guys do the job that I used to do. I found out that it is harder to do that job with age. It was enjoyable to watch a young guy develop, grow and improve. It was enjoyable watching individuals take on additional responsibility and have fun at it. I have watched several guys work up the ranks. That is probably the best thing I can say that I have had a hand in with trying to improve things.
“What is going on now (with budgets cuts to city departments) is beyond our control and we will just have to cope with it. It is not our fault. The condition the city is in is not the employees’ fault.”
Hickman said being a firefighter is not about being an “adrenaline junkie,” it’s about being able to manage that adrenaline for the good of the public when it needs help the most. One aspect of the job he has loved is being able to work on the fire department’s equipment. He said he has driven or worked on every piece of the fire department’s equipment — minus one truck — used since the department began in 1888.
“A bad day is working an automobile accident and having to take a person who is injured out of it and to the hospital, and a good day is when you later see that same person at Wal-Mart and they have recovered and are walking around,” Hickman said. “Emotionally, some days are stressful because you never know what is going to happen next. You constantly eat your food fast, and you don’t know how to sit down and enjoy a good meal because you know something is going to happen. But it’s that unknown that also draws you in to the job, and it’s why I love what I do.”
Now that it is time to pass the chief’s badge to his deputy Mike Eads, Hickman couldn’t fight back the tears when he said, “I couldn’t have asked for a better officer” during Eads’ five years as deputy chief.
“(Eads) can do the job, I have no doubt,” Hickman said. “I told Mike one day that (the chief’s office) would be his. I have had seven years at his job, and Mike has done an extremely great job working with the crews and in operations. We were always looking for ways to improve ourselves. He has been working to get his fire officer certifications. Mike has worked real close with the crew. He has the capability to be a great chief, and I have always told him that. He can handle it. It will be a learning process.”
Eads describes his mentor and friend as “the heart and soul” of the department.
“He is a firefighter’s firefighter,” Eads said. “He is somebody that you can sit down and talk with and he would listen. He didn’t get upset easily. It made it easier working with him because you could visit with him and discuss things without him getting upset or taking it the wrong way.
“Greg has always been here. He is the heart and soul of the department.”
“I owe 10 years to my wife”
Hickman admits it will be strange once his retirement starts to not have to wear the pager that has been on his belt for the past few decades. He joked that when he takes the pager off he will have to find something to put on his belt to replace it or his body may lean in the opposite direction.
Hickman may not have the responsibility to the department once retirement begins, but there will be work to be done as a list of “honey-do” items waits for him at home.
“I have a list that has grown for at least 10 years,” Hickman said. “It’s a list I have been procrastinating on. Everyone asked what I am going to do when I retire, and I tell them that I owe 10 years to Gay because that’s how many years total I have been gone from home during our marriage. We have been married for 39 years, and I have been gone for 10 years of it. I wasn’t sleeping at home, or doing things around the house, or working eight hours at day and coming home — I was gone and at the firehouse. I have a good-sized list, and it grows everyday.”
Hickman said he would find something to do in the workforce after he leaves the fire department.
“Everyone knows when you retire, you don’t retire,” Hickman said. “You have to find something to do. I just don’t know what I am going to do yet. I don’t have the patience to work on cars like I used to. I have 10 years of work to get done at home, and we will see how it goes.”
Hickman said he might consider increasing his role with the Newton County Emergency Management Department, which he now serves as deputy director, and would like to continue working in the public sector.
“What that will be, I don’t know,” Hickman said. “I’ll find something.”
What Hickman is sure about is that when the first big call comes over the scanner and he is no longer required to jump in the truck and assess the situation, it will be a strange feeling.
“I may not be able to be with (the firefighters) on the job, but my heart will always be there with them,” Hickman said.
