PETERSHAM – After four decades with the Petersham Fire Department, 35 as chief, Dana Robinson is hanging up his turnout gear.

At its meeting last Wednesday, the town’s Selectboard accepted Robinson’s letter of resignation. The chief said he intends for his departure to become official June 30, and would stay until a successor is chosen.

Board chair Nancy Allen told the Athol Daily News, “The Selectboard represents the community in relaying grateful thanks for his service and for applying his keen knowledge of the community, our residents, and our businesses’ needs from a fire safety perspective. The Selectboard is grateful that Chief Robinson has offered to assist as needed for a smooth transition for a new chief for the best of the Fire Department and the residents. Godspeed and semper peratus to Chief Robinson.”

Allen said that Robinson has been named Grand Marshall for this year’s Fourth of July parade in Petersham.

“I’ve been exposed to the fire department my whole life,” Robinson said. “My father was on the fire department before me and he retired after 44 years as the assistant chief. Growing up as a kid we always had one of the red phones in the house. My mother was on of the red phone operators. So, it’s been something that’s been part of me since day-one, pretty much.”

Robinson explained that, prior to using 911, the red phone allowed for residents to make emergency calls.

“The red phone operators would get the fire call by the dedicated emergency number,” Robinson explained, “and then they would start calling people by phone on a phone tree. Hopefully, all you had to do was make two phone calls and the rest would take care of itself. But if somebody wasn’t home you’d have to skip over that number and make their calls to notify people on the network.”

Robinson said his father began allowing him to respond to calls when he was 16 years old. He began going to meetings and learning to use the fire equipment, which he enjoyed doing.

“I ended up staying in the area after going away to college,” he said. “It was just something that clicked with me.”

After graduating from Mahar Regional High School in 1975, Robinson attended what was then known as North Adams State College – now the Mass College of Liberal Arts – where earned a bachelor’s degree in business. He is currently employed as the controller for the Pete’s Tire Barn chain, where he has been for a number of years. He also serves as treasurer for the Town of Petersham.

Robinson was appointed an officer with the Petersham Fire Department in 1982, at the time that his father retired. He was appointed deputy forest warden, which he said was equivalent to a captain.

“I just got involved with doing more things,” he said. “I was elected as an officer in the firefighter’s association and got involved with their fundraising. At that time the association held an annual clambake and a turkey raffle, but as times have changed those two things have fallen by the wayside.”

It wasn’t too long before he took over the top job in the department, which was – and remains – an on-call position. That was in 1988. Stuart Foster had been chief before Robinson and moved to North Carolina to follow his work at Starrett’s.

“There were three of us in the department who were interested in the chief’s job, and two of the tree of us were serving on the Board of Selectmen at the time – kind of a huge conflict of interest,” he said. “So, the three of us on the Board of Selectmen decided we would throw it to the fire department and let them make the decision of who they wanted for the new chief.”

Robinson said the job of firefighting has definitely changed in 35 years.

“When I first joined,” he said, “the type of safety equipment we had was pretty basic. We had hip boots and they had old rubber raincoats for turnout gear. One of the things I pushed for was to equip the firefighters with proper turnout gear and we’ve gone through three iterations of that.”

Asked about stepping away from the position after 35 years, Robinson said, “It’s going to be hard. I’m going to miss working with the people and helping out the townspeople at some of their neediest times and in the worst situations. Aside from making a good stop and saving property, just being able to help people out is the most rewarding part of the job. It’s what makes the job satisfying and rewarding.”

Robinson thanked the residents and taxpayers of Petersham for their consistent support.

“The town, has always been reasonable and never said ‘no’ to us,” he said. “They’ve been very generous. We’ve only come to the town for things we feel are important and needed to keep the department updated and well equipped.”

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.

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