FACILITY FIRE BRI FIRE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES INS FIRE PROTECTION, DETECTION, AN
FIRE SERVICE HYDRAULICS AND WATER SUPPLY HAZARDOUS MATERIALS TECHNICIAN PRINCIPLES OF PASSENGER VEHICLE EXTRICATION GROUND COVER FIRE FIGHTING FOR STRUCTURAL FIREFIGHTERS
academic department, the state fire service training program, and the publication and distribution of IFSTA training manuals. Douglas stayed busy with related matters. He traveled widely to promote fire service training. He and Heisler attended the FDIC regularly and spoke at fire schools, and Douglas lectured about fire protection on Oklahoma City’s WKY (NBC affiliate) television station. In his spare time, Douglas was active in community affairs. He was a Rotarian, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, a Boy Scout Leader, a long-time Sunday school teacher, an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and a volunteer firefighter. Douglas’s sudden death in January 1962 was a shock and great loss to his many friends and colleagues in the fire service, his family, and the many students he had taught, guided and inspired.
Emmett T. Cox Few men have given more than their lives to the fire service then Emmett T. Cox (Figure 35) . For almost 60 years, he was a firefighter, a fire marshal, and a fire instructor. He never missed an IFSTA meeting in 46 years.
Cox grew up near Marian Station on the eastern shore of Maryland. He loved railroading and left home to become a railroad telegrapher. By 1922, he was in Sullivan, Indiana where he served on the volunteer fire department. Five (5) years later his new avocation became a career when he switched to paid fire fighting. His interest led him to attend several of the training sessions at Oklahoma A&M College in the early 1930s and he met Fred Heisler and learned of the innovations being made in fire service training in Stillwater. Cox became the first out-of- state firefighter to earn a certificate from Oklahoma’s state fire service training program. He also supported the new academic program begun in 1937. He donated a bed for the student firefighters living in the Campus Fire Station’s second-floor dormitory. Cox attended that first Kansas City meeting called by the Western Actuarial Bureau where IFSTA was born. At the time, he was a member of the Indiana fire marshal’s department; he later became its director of education. He was also a fire department instructor for the Indiana Rating Bureau. In 1942, he became an engineer for the Western Actuarial Bureau and during World War II he was senior civilian protection officer for the U. S. Office of Civil Defense. But no matter what his official capacity, Cox never lost his interest in IFSTA. He chaired almost every editorial committee in the history of the organization and was chairman of the IFSTA Executive Board from 1961 to 1975. A big man with a big smile, Cox was a popular delegate at the validation conferences. Elmo Anderson said he was a good “front man” in the best sense of the term. He had the ability to absorb the ideas of others and present them in acceptable form to the full group. He also knew how to expedite the proceedings. Opening the 1970 conference, Cox explained that “all motions must be given to the secretary in writing for two reasons: one, to keep the record straight and, second, to reduce the number of motions. For if I had to write one, I just wouldn’t make it in the first place.” In 1970, IFSTA recognized Cox’s 35 years of contributions to the organization by putting his picture on the front cover of the proceedings. At the same time, Oklahoma Governor Dewey Bartlett made him an honorary “Okie,” and the College of Engineering at Oklahoma State University made him an honorary faculty member. Cox didn’t limit his fire service activities to IFSTA. After his retirement in 1969, he continued to work with the NFPA, the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) and the Fire Department Instructor’s Conference (FDIC), which he co-chaired with Richard Vernor and chaired alone from 1958 to about 1970. He Figure 35
IFSTA/FPP: THE FIRST 90 YEARS 55
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