On June 14, the Cherry Grove Fire Department (CGFD) held a moving ‘Firematic Memorial Service,” outside the Grove Fire House, for George Oakley, Fire Chief from 1996 to 1999, who passed away on Memorial Day. Much of Cherry Grove was in attendance.
Flags flew at half mast and sirens and bells were sounded in George’s memory. Fire Chief Steve Williams welcomed us, beginning, “It’s a sad day for us in Cherry Grove, but we’re thrilled to see everybody here.” CGFD Chaplain Kurt Gahan opened his address saying, “Our gathering is a solemn one. We don’t want to say goodbye,” and quoted from Ecclesiastes 3, Isaiah, John 15, and Romans 8.
Third Assistant Chief Kay Davis beautifully sang “Amazing Grace” and, as George’s helmet was placed on the fire truck that would be part of the procession, “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.”
In his address, Steve noted that George joined CGFD in February 1990 and served as a firefighter here for more than 20 years. He was instrumental in getting Grove firefighters “personally fitted turn-out gear,” rather than their using random gear that they found around the Fire House. After a call for CGFD to assist EMS interrupted Steve’s speech, he resumed, saying, “We will certainly miss [George’s] presence, but we have many things he built to remind us of him.”
Clyde Oakley, George’s brother and partner in Oakley Brothers Home Improvements contracting firm for 30 years, said that the one word that he might use to sum George up was “lover”—“George loved life, his daughter Laura, people, pets, challenges, and all the ladies.” He spoke of the brothers’ “lifelong bond of respect, trust, and reassurance” and of his sibling’s “hell-raising: George was very good at it.” George, Clyde told us, served in the 101st Airborne in Vietnam, where he earned a bronze star and two purple hearts. CGFD President Arthur Cohen pinned George’s badge, number 139, on Clyde and the Brookhaven Fire Chief presented George’s family with a Bible.
There was a moment of silence in George’s memory, followed by a procession east on Bayview Walk to Island Breeze restaurant for a reception.