TRAVERSE CITY — A longtime public servant finished his career with a celebration among friends, family and colleagues on Friday.
Chief Pat Parker of the Grand Traverse Metro Fire Department served 40 years in the firefighting profession,18 of those as Metro chief.
“What an incredible job it is. I am the luckiest man in the world. I have a job that you just get to go help people,” said Parker.
Chief Parker started as a first responder back in 1983 and said he’s seen many changes over the past 40 years.
“Probably the big one for us has really been the science behind firefighting. Now you read the smoke and kind of control the smoke, and we kind of say ‘tame the beast,’” said Parker.
He said serving the region wouldn’t have been possible without everyone at the department by his side.
“[They’re] very, very passionate about what they do. They love the training. They love making a difference,” said Parker. “Being able to make a difference in people’s lives is why this is the greatest job in the world.”
The biggest legacy Chief Parker said he wants to leave behind is the continued safety of current and future firefighters at Grand Traverse Metro.
“Every one of our patches say ‘omnis cedo domus,’ which is Latin for ‘we all go home.’ And that’s one of the things that we preach around here, is make sure that we do our job safely and we have each other’s backs,” said Parker.
Before his last day on March 31, Parker has one piece of advice for future chief Paul Mackin and his staff.
“One of the big things that I don’t like hearing anybody saying in any department is ‘We’re the greatest department in the area.’ No, no, no. We’re a good department. We want to try to get a little better every day. And if we just work on that, try to get a little better every day, it makes a huge difference.”
