Cairo, Ill., fire department volunteer still going strong at 93

CAIRO, Ill. -- Retiring hasn't yet occurred to Bob Simpson, chief of the Cairo Auxiliary Fire Department. He's too busy to leave the department, which he's been involved with since it formed 67 years ago.

"The guys won't let me go," said the 93-year-old fire chief, who clearly isn't interested in retiring.

Several times a week, Simpson can be found at the fire station keeping meticulous records of the auxiliary's activities and tending to whatever needs to be done. He no longer goes on fire calls, but he stays in radio contact with the firefighters who do, and remains at the station until they return.

Cairo has a city-supported fire department. The auxiliary department Simpson leads is strictly volunteer. It started during World War II, Simpson said, when the Civil Defense was established. Civil Defense offices sprang up at the local level throughout the country to serve as enemy airplane spotters and to assist police and fire departments that were losing personnel to military war service.

Simpson was among those first volunteers when the Cairo Civil Defense was formed in early September 1941, and was appointed a captain in the organization. After the war, the volunteers evolved into an auxiliary fire department that served outlying towns of Alexander County, and the surrounding rural area.

In 1957, Bob Gregory, the first chief of the auxiliary fire department, died of a heart attack.

"We thought they were going to close the place down," Simpson said.

The other members asked Simpson to be the chief. It's been running under his direction ever since, but Simpson says the success of the auxiliary comes from the camaraderie and skill of the men who give their time and expertise in turning donated trucks and boats into firefighting and rescue equipment.

"We're in good shape for a few more years," Simpson said. "We get along great with the city fire department. Everything is going smoothly."

Simpson was born in what was called the Central Bend area near Miller City, an area that once had three schools but is now just a memory. His family moved to Cairo, and when he was 14 he met the girl he would one day marry -- Anne Simpson. She said he used to ride his bicycle past her house to get her attention.

"I didn't have nerve enough to stop and talk to her," Simpson said.

But he did get her attention while they were roller skating, and she fell.

"She says I tripped her on purpose," Simpson said. "She blames me because she fell and broke her butt."

During their teenage years they each dated others, but eventually found each other. A year before they were married, Simpson said he asked his mother what he could get Anne for her birthday. He said his mother told him, "Why don't you get that girl an engagement ring?"

He did and they were married in June of 1938.

Between leading the auxiliary fire department and raising three children, Simpson has worked in local laboratories and as a grain inspector. He keeps busy, as he says, "knocking around."

Simpson says If there's a secret to a long, healthy life, perhaps it is due to a love of life,. Or maybe keeping busy is the key.

"My doctor in Cape said, 'Don't you realize you're getting old?'" he chuckled. "Maybe that's it; I don't realize I'm getting old."

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