The following announcement is from Tom Leonard from the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy:
Sunday night I learned of the unexpected passing of Bill Hollick, whom many of you probably did not know, but who was a long time Massachusetts Firefighting Academy employee and instructor and a dear friend.
Bill was more than that however and his influence on and importance in both the fire service and fire training as it is conducted even today at MFA cannot be overstated. For, when you watch Recruits being trained in the back yard, you need to know that one of the true cornerstones of that program has left us.
Bill was one of the “original 6” Recruit instructors along with Jim Harrington, Jack Peltier, Ed Hartin and others whose names have passed into history. In the early days of the 1970’s when Ed McCormack was the first Academy Director, they worked with chalk and a chalk board, a patch of dirt, beaten down and dilapidated buildings, borrowed apparatus and less. But they developed the finest Recruit fire training program in the country and with it produced generations of well trained firefighters and a legacy that continues today.
But Bill was more than just an instructor – he was the Hudson Fire Chief for several years at a young age before he came to work fulltime at MFA in 1986-87 as the Programs Director. He implemented a firefighter fitness program in concert with his firefighters union that was recognized nationally as cutting edge for its time. He advocated for the safety of firefighters before it was in vogue to do so. And there was no advance in fire science that he didn’t research and implement. For a period of time he even embraced lime green fire trucks although he and I spent many an hour debating that philosophy!
In his service at MFA he started as the Deputy Director of Program Services and became Academy Director in 1995-96 when DFS was formed. He was both a visionary and a leader. Concepts like the design of the ladder tower, the use of multiple doors in the burn building to create different configurations, safety features in the Gas School during its construction and early use, the “Hollick Wall” (the clear Lucite panels on the sides of Ladder One so that students could see and identify the working parts of the fire pump), teaching Recruits to rappel safely off buildings, the Recruit fitness program and the evolution of the Recruit program from 6 to 7 weeks, the recruit grading and deficiency point system and the development and implementation of the Pro Board firefighter certification program were just a few of the many ideas he built into reality for training.
He was one of the creators of the Instructor pay system still in place today and he established instructor development and teaching levels to provide improvement and motivation as well as increased compensation for fire instructors and support staff. He came from the days of the $ 5 per hour instructor so he understood the need for improving that system.
He would never take credit for those innovations, leaving that to the “Boots on the Ground” but his fingerprints were and continue to be all over the place you all work in. He was one of the co-founders of Managers Make Brunch from our days at the old elementary school on Horse Pond Road in Sudbury. Again it was for the people who work here and a way for management to give back and recognize the people, the work and efforts that it takes to make a successful organization.
His depth of knowledge, level of research and deep and abiding interest in the fire service were not matched by many.
Bill was also a decorated Viet Nam veteran who shared very little of some terrible experiences overseas during the View Nam War but who remained true to his Marine Corps training and discipline, with his Semper Fi attitude to the end. He exuded discipline and he exerted it but in a gentlemanly, fair and impartial way; he never raised his voice unless it was to stop a training activity where someone was about to get hurt. He was one of the fairest people you would ever meet, sometimes maddeningly so, but in the end he was there to take care of his people and his programs and his product – well trained firefighters.
He was the consummate family man who idolized his wife and two sons Eric and Mark. It’s tough to describe his devotion to his family because I have never met someone before or after more devoted than Bill.
On June 16th of this year Bill posted on Facebook (and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me sharing this):
“50 years ago yesterday a young woman who was a high school salutatorian at graduation went out on a first date with a member of the graduating class who majored in goofing off and skipping school. What on earth was she thinking?”
That pretty much says it all about how he felt about Pauline.
His outside interests were varied and eclectic and he never did anything half way whether it was film photography, motorcycles, woodworking, gardening, country music and line dancing, travelling or technology and his family dogs.
He was a big man with a bigger heart who once tried to eat every hot dog at the Coney Island hot dog eatery in Worcester (not really but he ate 12-15 that day for lunch), would demolish a Chinese buffet and later in life become a devout vegetarian who would always ask if the Clam Chowder had any bacon in it. And he loved Fish and Chips at the old Nick’s in downtown Hudson.
Bill also had a very dry wit with the humor of someone very knowing but not at all condescending. He was as loyal as any friend could be both to his family and friends but also to the fire service and the Marine Corps and it fills my heart with profound sadness to know he is no longer with us.
I hope that you know a little more now about one of the true charter members of MFA and can find it in your heart to offer some prayers or thoughts of kindness and sympathy for Pauline, Eric and Mark and their family. And when you take a few minutes to look into the training yard know that one of the giants of Massachusetts fire training is now watching from above while you admire what Bill Hollick has helped the agency accomplish.
–Tom
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Tom Leonard
Massachusetts Firefighting Academy
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Executive Office of Public Safety and Security
Massachusetts Department of Fire Services
978-567-3179 (Direct)
[email protected]
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NOTE: More details will be provided as they become available.
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