By Rosa Ramirez
Rocky Mountain News (Denver)
Copyright 2006 Denver Publishing Company
Ruben L. Sims Jr., the first black person to join the Aurora Fire Department and an accomplished musician, died Sept. 11 in his home. He was 56.
Mr. Sims had suffered from prostate cancer for the past three years, his family said. He died surrounded by his family in Denver, where he was born and raised.
Mr. Sims gained recognition for moving up the ranks within the Aurora Fire Department and paving the way for other blacks.
Mr. Sims began his career as an entry-level firefighter in April 1977 and retired as a fire engineer in April 1997. As an engineer, he drove the fire truck that calculated the water pressure needed to extinguish a fire and was responsible for the safety of a crew of four, said Chris Henderson, battalion chief for the Aurora Fire Department.
But things weren’t easy for Mr. Sims.
“He endured a lot,” said Henderson, who met Mr. Sims when he joined the department in 1991. “It was not a welcoming atmosphere for him,” said Henderson, who also is black.
Mr. Sims became a mentor to other black firefighters in the department and “always looked out for us.”
“I look for people who have come before me for inspiration. I have a lot of admiration for what he has done . . . and the path that he opened,” Henderson said.
The department now has 11 black firefighters out of about 293.
“He was a role model, not only for African-Americans but for firefighters in general,” Henderson said.
Lawana Sims said her husband created programs to recruit women and minorities into the department.
During Juneteenth and the Denver Black Arts Festival, Mr. Sims “would always bring a fire truck to the parade and let all the little children in the neighborhood, who had the permission of their parents, ride with him. Their eyes would just light up.”
“He loved children and wanted to send the message to the African-American and other minority communities that your dreams can be realized,” she said.
Mrs. Sims said she will never forget the date Nov. 11, 1974. That’s when she and Mr. Sims met while he was playing in a band, on his birthday.
“I fell in love with him that day,” she said, adding that during their 28-year marriage he brought her a dozen red roses every week “because he knew it would put a smile on my face.”
His younger and only sister, Linda Mudd, of California, said she remembers growing up with an “outstanding musician” who began playing the piano since he was “tall enough to reach the piano.”
After graduating from Manual High School, Mr. Sims received a music scholarship to study at Central College in Pella, Iowa, where he stayed a year. He later took a few classes at the University of Colorado, then transferred to Berklee College of Music in Boston. There, he studied jazz and music composition, Mudd said.
His specialty was playing the saxophone, “especially the baritone saxophone,” she said.
Even when he joined the Air Force, he continued to compose music for the band. And he won numerous prizes for it, too.
Besides his wife and sister, Mr. Sims is survived by the couple’s three sons, Chauncey, of Florida; and Shelley and Jamey, both of Denver. Funeral services were held Sept. 18 at Mt. Gilead Baptist Church at 195 S. Monaco Parkway.