Bedford Village traffic was halted for a few minutes last Tuesday to make way for the final transport of BFD ex-Chief and Bedford native, John Clark, who passed away on June 25, 2025. The procession and graveside service were attended by fire officers from multiple area fire departments, Highway Department colleagues, as well as scores of friends and family.

John joined the Bedford Fire Department in 1977, in his early twenties, and rose quickly through the ranks. He became Chief in 1989, a position he held until 1993, and then again from 1999 to 2000; he is the second longest tenured Chief in BFD history – second only to BFD’s very first Chief, John Kinkel. Despite this pedigree, John was perhaps happiest in his times as a regular member; working in the kitchen or cleaning the bowling alley (yes there is a bowling alley in the old Firehouse) or watching both of his daughters become Bedford firefighters.

It is hard to overstate the work, effort and personal sacrifice it takes to be the Chief of a volunteer fire dept. Leaving aside the notion that the role is additional to your ‘real’ job, the Chief must train and manage a multi-generational group of people to a consistently high standard of competency in lifesaving skills while also dealing with the unique challenges of that era.

One such generational challenge emerged during John’s first term. By 1989, the BFD call volume had shifted to higher numbers of EMS calls than fire-related incidents. Bedford had always taken great pride in its long history of providing ambulance service to our community, but by the end of the 1980’s the level of care was deemed to be of “poor quality” by senior officers, and in desperate need of an upgrade. Furthermore, the NY State legislative agenda promised legal changes that would soon require all ambulance calls to be covered by properly trained EMTs. John greenlighted a Committee to evaluate the options for recruiting and training more EMS providers. The Committee produced a comprehensive and thoughtful analysis of the issues and options to be reviewed at a Special Meeting. They narrowed the options down to two: either Bedford allows for an EMT-only membership (that would likely increase the membership of women in the department), or we dissolve EMS and ask KBHVAC to take over our ambulance and run EMS calls in our district. The membership was split but ultimately decided to adopt the district’s new guidelines on membership that specifically allowed for new members to choose either ‘Fire Essentials’ or ‘EMT-Basic”. This decision was not without its detractors – the Chair of the membership committee promptly resigned because of the change.

Throughout the episode John remained balanced and supportive of the committee and ultimately supportive of the will of the voting majority. And today, we are extremely proud of the quality of our EMS service that remains an integral part of the BFD.

His measured approach to conflict would be tested again soon after. At the natural end of John's two-year term as Chief, his First Assistant Chief was ready to step into the role. However, some members felt that he needed more seasoning after only one year as 1st Asst. Chief. The group nominated John – in absentia - to stay on for another year. In a show-down election John was narrowly reelected for another term. The election process at that time, meant that the losing candidate was then effectively shut out of any officer role for that year – we have since changed our by-laws to avoid this exact scenario. As it was, our Asst Chief decided to resign “in good standing” and with the department’s thanks, to join Bedford Hills FD – where, happily, his dynasty continues to flourish!

John’s second two-year term as Chief was thankfully less stressful, though still with issues to address, such as prohibiting beer on fire calls, and banning smoking in the firehouse (except for Turkey Night, of course) and attempting to find out who was using the firehouse phone for 1-900 calls. During that time the department put out fires, transported patients, won some parade trophies, worked on getting a defibrillator and two-way radios in all apparatus, and welcomed home our troops from the first Gulf War.

After completing his second two-year term, John moved back to the ranks and in 1994 was elected as Vice President. This new role was short-lived, however, when the current Chief moved out of district and resigned his position. Paul Aquilino and Justin Kernan stepped up to fill the roles of Chief and 1st Asst Chief respectively, and John was asked to wear the white hat again, as 2nd Asst Chief. He obliged and continued to 1st Asst Chief in 1997 and then fulfilled his third two-year term as Chief from 1999 to 2000. Fittingly, the Chief that took us into the 1990’s also closed out that decade, positioning the department for the new millennium.

As a department we are forever grateful to our members who pull together to tackle the ever-increasing workload required to operate a volunteer agency, but ultimately the weight of the department rests squarely on the Chief. So, to John Clark who bore more than his share of the burden, we thank you and salute you. Rest in Peace Chief, we’ll take it from here.