Brady honored at retirement reception July 24
Date: 7/31/2012
By Chris Maza
chrism@thereminder.comEAST LONGMEADOW — The morning of July 30 surely must have been a strange one for Fire Chief Richard Brady.
For a change, Brady, who retired, effective July 27, after 36 years with the Fire Department and four and a half as chief, probably slept well the night before.
For the first time in more than three and a half decades, he didn't walk through the door of the fire station on Somers Road.
There were no fires to respond to, no departmental emails or phone calls to return, no budgets to go over, no inspections to oversee, no pesky reporters calling for updates.
"This is really a bittersweet thing for me," he said at a retirement reception at the Pleasant View Senior Center on July 24. "It's been my whole life. My life revolved around the Fire Department, which meant on New Year's Eve, going out the door to a party, and then upon hearing of a fire, going to the fire. That's what my family lived with."
Brady said that being a call firefighter carries with it very unique circumstances and work conditions that few would actually understand.
"When you respond from your home, it's totally different than anything else because you're giving up your family life to help the town," Brady said.
Despite the sacrifices, Brady said he wouldn't have changed anything about his tenure with the department because of the personal connections he has made during that time.
"I never once didn't enjoy it," he said. "My whole experience with the Fire Department was fantastic. The friends you make are friends you keep. At my last fire drill I was telling the guys that almost all of my friends in life are either on the Fire Department or retired from the Fire Department."
He did admit, however, that he is going to enjoy being able to do some things most people take for granted.
"It's great to know I will be able to sleep at night because in 36 years, I only knew I could sleep if I went away," he said. "To know that I can go to sleep or to know that I won't get called out during a meal or at a party or something, it's nice because there's time."
Reflecting on the successes he and the department have had during his tenure, Brady pointed to a recent accomplishment in securing grant funding to help finance the department's radio system upgrade.
The $320,923 grant from the Federal Department of Homeland Security, was the first major federal grant Brady applied for as chief.
"The precious one was the grant," he said. "I wasn't a professional grant writer at all and it was a very competitive grant and I was fortunate enough to get it. If you think about it, that amount was almost half of the total Fire Department budget for a year."
Now retired, Brady said he had no immediate plans except to relax a bit and spend time with his family and his dogs Annie, a yorkshire terrier, and Tessa, a black lab.
"I'm going to chill for a couple of months. I'm going to sit back and do nothing," he said. "The timing couldn't be better because it's August and I'll have all of August off. Also, my daughter is expecting her second child around Sept. 2, so that's something to look forward to."
Eventually, he said, he'd like to work part-time doing something "totally different."
"I've got all of these things I could do, apart from all the work I have to do on my house," he said with a smile.
