QUILCENE — More than 1,000 people wept, laughed, prayed and warmly delivered their fond farewells as they remembered Fire Chief Bob Wilson on Saturday.
Chief Wilson died of cancer April 17.
He was 58.
About 200 of those crowding into the Quilcene School gymnasium to pay their respects were firefighters and emergency responders. A procession of emergency and police vehicles from Jefferson and Clallam counties rolled from the Gardiner fire station to the service.
“Bob was truly a good man,” Port Ludlow Fire Chief Ed Wilkerson said in his eulogy during the celebration of life for Chief Wilson, led by the Wilson family and community leaders.
“He was a role model for all,” Wilkerson said.
“He was a role model for me.”
Under Jefferson and Clallam County firetruck ladders raised to hang a slowly waving Old Glory, a full firefighter honor guard and line-up stood at attention at the school’s entrance to greet the Wilson family, led by son Jake Wilson and Chief Wilson’s widow, Veda.
Inside the gym, a solemn crowd listened while speakers delivered their memories of the man who led the Quilcene Volunteer Fire Department for 17 years, adding the Discovery Bay-Gardiner department to his leadership duties in 2007.
“Although you are gone, you will never be forgotten,” said Randy Coggan, Port Ludlow Fire & Rescue assistant chief, striking the final bell during the ceremony preceded by a JeffCom 911 dispatch farewell and a Marine Security Force Battalion flag presentation.
Capt. Bob Moss, a bagpiper and U.S. Coast Guard retired, played “Amazing Grace” after the family pastor, the Rev. Stephen Mandeville’s welcome and opening prayer.
Leader, teacher
Calling Chief Wilson a friend, confidante, strong-spirited leader, mentor and teacher, Wilkerson said, “What was certain is that Bob Wilson was all this and more.
Wilkerson, who has stepped in to help lead Quilcene Fire District No. 2 and Gardiner-Discovery Bay District No. 5 following Chief Wilson’s death, said the chief would be missed by all.
Robert “Moe” Moser, who served with Chief Wilson in Quilcene for the past 18 years and is the Quilcene emergency medical services chief, took the opportunity to remember his friend Chief Wilson’s gentle sense of humor.
Describing a day when he for some reason was “irritated” at Chief Wilson, Moser said he emptied a bottle of water into the chief’s shoes after arriving at a fire scene and putting on his firefighter gear.
When Chief Wilson saw the water, “he put on his wet shoes, got into his car and drove off,” Moser said.
The next day, Moser found his firefighting helmet upside down and filled with water. He turned to see Chief Wilson smiling at him.
“Searching for truth’
The Rev. Ron Almberg, pastor of Quilcene Assembly of God and a family friend, recalled the long walk out into Quilcene Bay at low tide to baptize Chief Wilson, a man he said who “was really searching for the truth.”
Neal Borggard, a Quilcene firefighter and family friend, fought back tears remembering the chief who gave him a chance because others had given Chief Wilson a second chance.
Saying he had been “a problem child” before he met Chief Wilson, Borggard said, “This wonderful man that I just met had just stuck his neck out on the line for me.
“Whatever that man asked me to do I would.”
Dana Ward, wife of Assembly of God pastor Dan Wilson and a close, longtime Wilson family friend, said that when he first arrived in Quilcene in the late 1970s, he was a long-haired, bearded young fellow she knew as “Woodman.”
She knew his life “had really taken a turn” for the better by 1983 after he married Veda Ray Boyd on May 3, 1980, in Quilcene and found God, she said.
“He was a great dad. He loved his kids and had a great heart for them,” she said.
“He made mistakes, but what I admired most about him was he was always willing to do the right thing.”
He was “a noble character,” she said, remembering that Chief Wilson helped move his mother and Veda’s parents to Quilcene to be close to them.
“He was the man who walked the walk and talked the talk,” Ward said.
Chief Wilson’s son, Jake, thanked those who visited his father during his final days — a number he said could have been as many as 150.
Citing the many lives Chief Wilson touched, Jake Wilson said, “This showed he accomplished his life’s mission” with the help of firefighters and others in the community.
Chief Wilson was born Oct. 3, 1950, to Ray Wilson and Wilma Tate in San Bernardino, Calif.
He met his wife, Veda, in Quilcene in 1978.
He is survived by his wife, sons Joseph, 29, of Quilcene and Jake, 23, of Port Orchard; and daughter, Dana, 18, a Quilcene High School senior.
He also is survived by his mother, now living in Quilcene, and brother Ivan Wilson of Federal Way.
Memorial contributions are suggested to the Quilcene Volunteer Fire Department, P.O. Box 433, Quilcene WA 98376, or Quilcene Assembly of God Church, P.O. Box 515, Quilcene, WA 98376.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com
