NEAFC 31st Annual Conference.pdf - New England Association of ...

BE IT RESOLVED: That we extend to their families and to the communities
that they served so efficiently and loyally, our deepest sympathy on their loss, and ~
BE IT RESOLVED: That the memories of their sacrifice and service will always
inspire those who follow them.
May that peace which passeth all hu’.man understandin,g remain with our departed
loved ones f, cr evermore.
PR~.SlD~.NT MOLLOY: We will now have the Memorial Address by the Reverend
Frank E. Dunn of Springfield, Massachusetts.
REVEREND FRANK E. ])UNN: IN MEMORY--A Memorial Ad’dress to the Fire
Chiefs of New England in Conference at Pc.rtsmouth, New Hampshirel June 22, 19f3.
It was the an.cient writer, Horace, who, speaking out of the wisdom ,Q.f the past,
gave us a thought for this Memorial Exercise today, when in Carmina, he said:
"I have reared a Memorial more enduring than brass, and loftier than the
regal structures of the pyr-arr~ds, which neither the corroding shower nor the p,owerless
n, orth wind can destroy; no, not even unending years, nor the flight of
" time itself."
For, indeed, on such occasions as this, we are not only calling to m~nd our fellow
colleagues, the great public servants whose lives have come to an end; we are seekin.g
by appropriate recognition in our memories, yes, in our-hearts, to evaluate the service
of their lives in those commur.,ities in which they provided leadership of great distinctfcn.
~And it is well for us to retrace in thought and in memory the faces, of those we
shall no longer see, the spirits of friends who have ascended the universal pea.ks of
spirituality whe[e the limitations of this life are no longer in evidence, and where new
challenges for the advancement of pers.cnality are present.
We are contemplating no sad office today. It is true that friends have gone, that
old colleagues are no more seen in, familiar places. But they have merely taken an
earlier train to a distant land. We shall be joined again some day with them. But
their work is done. Whatever tasks obsessed them, these are cver. The problems of
materiality are behind.
No .one can gainsay the value of their service to the community. The very nature
of your occupation demands that such a service be primary, be constant, and continuously
available. And the ramifihations of that service are many. I recall the story
from my own community of a family whose house was burned to the ground on a
Christmas eve. ,Christmas day would have indeed been bleak, had it not been for a speciat
committee of the depa_rtment .c.petating un,der sincere leadership which provided
food, clothing, money and other necessaries and thus stemmed the tide of despair that
was .beginning to engulf this family.
The stories of personal and professional service offered by your friends whose
memory we honor today are .verified by the experiences of your own lives. For such
great contribution to the living of their respective communities and the lives of many
of its citizens, we can be truly thankful. ~
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