After clocking nearly 20 years of fighting fires with the Addison Township Fire Department, former Assistant Chief John Beach had to say goodbye to the community and the job he’s loved for a long time and retire.

He said he never really meant to become a firefighter when he started at the station as a volunteer in 1999, but Beach found he greatly enjoyed the job and the comradery that came along with it.

“My dad was a firefighter in the 1970s when I was growing up . . . and when I moved to the (Addison) area, I thought it would be a good way to meet people,” he said. “I started out as (a) paid-on-call (firefighter) and after (I graduated from) school, I had an opportunity to be full-time.”

Though he’ll miss doing the job, Beach said it’s his fellow firefighters and the family-like work environment that he’ll look back on with the most fondness.

“The time spent hanging out in the department and joking around – that’s what I’ll miss,” he said. “We really are kids at heart and like a family.”

Around the station, Beach was known for always wanting to fix or improve something, no matter how small. Addison Fire Chief Jerry Morawski said he could always count on Beach to make something work better or faster whether he asked him to or not.

“It’s going to be hard to replace John,” Morawski said. “John was a great guy for new ideas, he was one of those guys who was always putzing around. John would work 24 hour shifts… and  John  was that guy  who was putzing around all day long trying to  figure out a  new idea or  find something we could do better in the department.”

Beach remembered times where his professional past helped him think in ways that were different from his coworkers, which, in Morawski’s words, made Beach an integral member of Addison Fire’s team. Beach started with the department at a time when it wasn’t as strong as it is today, and he always kept the mindset that he and his coworkers could find ways to be better and more efficient.

“Part of my job when I worked in the tool and dye (industry) was production management where I tried to make things smoother, pick them apart and  figure out what  slowed things down,” he said. “At the station, we converted our rescue into an engine because we weren’t using it and we needed an engine, so that made sense.

“Jerry thought it was pretty wild to think of that, but it seemed obvious to me. But it was just from my past experiences and that’s what  benefits a team – to have different experiences,” Beach said.

Morawski said though Beach’s innovation was always nice to have around, his work ethic and loyalty will be the hardest to replace on the team.

“He was a valued employee and he’s going to be missed,” Morawski said. “We have a great team here, and other people are going to have to pick up the slack and  keep moving forward around here to be a good department.”

In  retirement  from the fire station, Beach is now working as a mariner in Higgins Lake with his wife. Though he’s now working with fire’s opposite element, he said his experience at the fire station will continue to be some of the most valuable in his life and he encourages others to find the gratification of hard work and helping someone else through involvement with the station, even at the volunteer level.

“Helping  your neighbor, it’s  something special,” he said. “(Firefighting is) very rewarding in its own self, and they need help. All of the departments need help, they’re all struggling to get people.”