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MARCH 2016
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A supplement to Eagle News
Six decades of service Cicero FD volunteer retires after 62 years By Ashley M. Casey
“I
Staff Writer
don’t think I’m anybody special,” said the softspoken Loomis Pardee. But to the dozens of people packed into Cicero Fire Station No. 1 to celebrate his retirement after 62 years as a volunteer firefighter, “Loomie” seems pretty special indeed. “He is Cicero, he and his family,” Town Clerk Tracy Cosilmon said at Pardee’s surprise retirement party on Jan. 30. When Pardee submitted his intention to retire from the department a few weeks ago, he said department officials had floated the idea of throwing him a party, but he told them not to bother. “I don’t want nothing. I’ve done nothing more than anybody else has done,” Pardee said. “There’s people here who have done more than I have. There’s ones a lot more important than me.” Despite Pardee’s humility, the CFD community decided they needed to give him a proper sendoff. “Sixty-two years — we’ve got to do something,” said Second Assistant Chief George Barrett, one of the surprise party planners. Barrett said he discussed the idea at the Onondaga County Fire Chiefs Association banquet last month with Pardee’s wife Carol and Pardee’s longtime friend Charlie Eastwood, who retired in 2014 after 62 years as a volunteer firefighter. “The three of us went over in a corner and conspired for about 10 minutes,” Barrett said. George Barrett’s brother, past CFD chief and current President Jon Barrett, was in on the plan to surprise Loomie as well. He created a private Facebook event and sent out an email blast to everyone on the department’s email list — except the man of the hour, of course. Eastwood left a message at the Pardees’ home to say there was a commissioners’ meeting at the firehouse. Pardee was none the wiser; he showed up to the party in a sweatshirt and work boots, not expecting a celebration in his honor. “He’s a jeans and sweatshirt guy,” Carol Pardee said of her husband. As Pardee’s fellow firefighters, friends and family gathered for a feast, Assemblyman Al Stirpe presented a stunned Pardee with a proclamation recognizing his “unwavering commitment” to the fire department. “It’s the least we could do after two-thirds of a century,” George Barrett said. Loomis Pardee joined the Cicero Fire Department on Nov. 1, 1953. He served as chief between 1966 and 1968 before marrying Carol, his second wife, in 1971. They have four children, two grandchildren and one greatgrandchild. Pardee said his brother, John, and his friend, Charlie Eastwood, both volunteered for the department. “Even before that, we hung around here a lot,” Pardee
Ashley M. Casey
Loomis Pardee was recognized for 62 years of active service with the Cicero Fire Department at a surprise party Jan. 30. Assemblyman Al Stirpe presented him with a proclamation. recalled. “There wasn’t much to do in Cicero.” Over the years, Pardee has seen a lot of changes in the department. He said when he started in 1953, the department used a Ford Model A fire engine. Now, the department purchases trucks worth hundreds of thousands of dollars — “entirely different,” he said. These days, longtime volunteer firefighters like Pardee and Eastwood are getting harder to find. “Sometimes we have fundraisers and it seems like it’s just us old guys here,” Pardee said. Pardee said increased governmental involvement and rigorous training requirements may dissuade younger potential volunteers, especially those who are busy raising families. “Family comes first,” Pardee said.
“It’s a great organization and you’re actually doing a lot for your community.” -Loomis Pardee, about the Cicero fire department
In an age when fire departments are finding it increasingly hard to retain volunteers, Pardee stressed the importance of serving one’s community. “It’s a great organization and you’re actually doing a lot for your community,” he said. Pardee said he’s made a lot of good memories over the past six decades, and he’s enjoyed his duties with the fire department; Barrett said up until last year, Pardee consistently placed on the department’s list of top 10 responders. During his decades as a volunteer firefighter, Pardee has held various jobs: dairy farmer, school bus driver and owner of the Pardee Bros. snowmobile shop, which he sold in 2003. Sometimes, though, fighting fires and other emergencies in Cicero interrupted Pardee’s daily life. He recalled one occasion on which he had to drop everything in the middle of milking his cows to answer a call. Another time, he’d brought his kids to softball practice when a fire alarm came in. “I can’t go; I’ve got the kids here,” he remembered telling his colleagues. One replied, “Well, you’d better go — it’s up at your shop!” “He owned a business, raised a family and he still had time to do this, which said a lot about him,” Barrett said. “Younger members, we look at guys like him and Charlie [Eastwood] and we say they’ve laid the groundwork, and we’ve got to continue that.”