I thought I would share what (newly promoted BC) Matt Coffin posted in todays CFEMS Daily Business Plan: I first met Frank Kinnier (“Pop”) in 2006 during my first day as the new Community Programs Coordinator in the Fire and Life Safety division. He was the first one there in the morning, in fact, he was the first one there every morning and usually one of the last to leave. Frank did his devotions every morning, he made the first pot of coffee and he drank coffee from his favorite Federal Signal™ coffee cup—always. Frank sat a picnic table in a grass patch between the old Fire Training Center and the Community Development building where he would enjoy the quiet reading of a novel during his lunch break—every day. It was one of the few places the phone, radio, and people could be avoided for 20-30 minutes. Frank loved his wife Andy, loved and was proud of his son Frank, and loved his two girls Jeanne and Colleen. It is not something I say as a reader of an obituary, it is something I witnessed for more than three years in word, in deed and in pictures. You see, everything that Frank was about was on display in the “cube of knowledge.” Many of us spent time in the chairs across from him getting answers to those ambiguous questions. However, you couldn’t get past seeing the wall of babies and grandbabies; those pictures outshined all of the other fire service memorabilia and adornments on display. Frank took several hits for the fire service and for CFEMS running the prevention football to the end zone. That football encompassed the enforcement of the fire code, the education of countless numbers of inspectors and engineers and his faithfulness to give people a chance to get out of a structure safely. Most players only have to run a football for 100 yards; Frank ran the ball for CFEMS and the citizens for 28 years of his 47-year fire service journey. Twenty-eight years of tackles can take its toll, but he was faithful, he dusted off and stepped back up to the line again and again. Frank was passionate about the firecode and passionate about making construction safer. Because of his faithfulness, generations of firefighters can look up to the ceilings of large residential and commercial buildings and see a piece of Frank’s legacy. His focus was on us, it was thankless but he took great pride in supporting “the boys in Op’s.” Countless numbers of tragedies have been avoided because of 7.5 gallons or more discharging from the device he fought so hard to keep in the submitted plans of developers. Frank defended the fire service and he remained faithful. The CFEMS family is grateful to Mrs. Kinnier, Frank, Jeanne and Colleen for sharing “Pop” with us for all of these years. He was a good man because of the life that he led, the relationships he invested in, and his heart for others. The fire service just happened to benefit from the quality of his character. What will your legacy be? - God Bless the Kinnier Family- ..mc
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 13:03:58 +0000
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