Our special section reviewing W. S. Darley’s 100 years in business is our way of thanking Bill Darley for his support and encouragement of Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment magazine over the last 12 years.
A serendipitous encounter with Bill Darley at the FDIC trade show in 1996 spurred me to launch this publication. (I don’t usually write in the first person, preferring the editorial “we,” but this column is really personal.)
Having sold my newspaper publishing business, I had done little except collect and restore fire trucks during the six previous years. I had just bought Firetec, a used apparatus broker, and traveled to Indianapolis to learn where used truck sales fit into the fire industry. After all, used fire trucks only come to market when somebody buys a new one. Here at FDIC were all the people who sold new ones.
I was overwhelmed by the number of displays and dealers present and was consumed with the thought of distinguishing my newly acquired company to capture more of the used truck market. I had spent 27 years publishing newspapers, so after walking the show floor for an hour, I concluded that a new nationally circulated publication could be a key to marketing used fire apparatus.
I was standing near the Darley Company booth reflecting on the idea when a distinguished gentleman introduced himself with “Hi, I’m Bill Darley.”
I was speechless for a moment. “THE Bill Darley?” I asked. “I guess so,” he replied, “I don’t know another.”
I had first jumped onto the rear step of a 1927 Seagrave as hydrant man on a career-volunteer combination type department in 1958. That’s when I’d had my first introduction to the Darley Catalog. Now Bill Darley himself was standing in front of me. The legendary Bill Darley.
Holy smoke!
The Darley Catalog had been a fixture around the firehouse. It was pretty much required reading for young new firefighters. It contained everything — including drawings and illustrations — about stuff you had to learn.
“What’s the difference between a gated wye and a clappered siamese?” If you didn’t know, you looked it up in the Darley catalog.
Pin lug vs. rocker lug spanner wrenches, pike poles and plaster hooks (called rakes in New England) were all detailed in the Darley Catalog. It was our own encyclopedia for the volunteer fire service in those days. It was the Bible to us.
Now here was Moses himself standing before me. The man who brought the tablets of all firefighting wisdom down from the mountain. The fundamentals of all fire knowledge were passed on from one generation to the next via the Darley Catalog.
I had assumed he must be deceased by now, but no, I was really talking to William S. Darley and he looked very much alive to me. (I hadn’t noticed the “Jr.” on his name tag, but it made little difference. To me, W. S. Darley was THE father of the fire equipment industry.)
Recovering from my shock, I said, “Mr. Darley, what do you think about a new magazine for the fire business?” Well — Bill put his hand on my shoulder — and replied, “Peter, the one thing this industry doesn’t need is another magazine.”
Aha! A challenge. And I had a record of not shrinking from challenges. By the August IAFC show that year, Bill Darley had become a good friend and solid supporter of this magazine, for which I am ever grateful.