By Joe Simnacher
The Dallas Morning News
Copyright 2007 The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — Alexander Eugene “Gene” Chesney commanded the respect of his fellow firefighters during 33 years with the Dallas Fire Department.
Mr. Chesney, 75, died Thursday of pancreatic and liver cancer at his DeSoto home.
Services were Saturday at Hampton Road Baptist Church in DeSoto. He was buried in Laurel Land Memorial Park.
“Any one of the guys who worked with him would tell you he was probably the best captain that anybody ever had,” said Denny Burris, a retired Fire Department chaplain. “He was fair, he was gentle - he could be stern - but at the same time he never got rattled. He always had a command about him.”
Whenever department chiefs came into the station and chewed out one of Mr. Chesney’s firefighters, he would confront them and stand up for his staff, Mr. Burris said.
“He would stand in front of them and say: ‘You get back to my office. You don’t deal with my people unless you deal with me.’ That’s the kind of person he was,” Mr. Burris said.
Mr. Chesney was born and raised in Kansas City, Kan., where he graduated from high school.
He worked briefly in Kansas City before moving to the Dallas area for its warmer climate, said his wife, Caryl Chesney of DeSoto.
After joining the Fire Department in 1954, Mr. Chesney was promoted to driver in 1959, lieutenant in 1964 and captain in 1968. He spent much of his career at Station No. 33 in Oak Cliff.
In August 1963, Mr. Chesney was driving a 46-foot aerial ladder truck that was involved in an Oak Cliff accident that killed two firefighters and one police officer. Mr. Chesney and four other firefighters were responding to a false alarm shortly after midnight when they were broadsided by an unmarked police car racing to assist another squad car pursuing a speeder.
“It made him a different person, but for the better,” Mr. Burris said. “He could have become bitter ... but not him. It made him better.”
Immediately after the collision, Mr. Chesney stopped the truck and discovered he was the lone ambulatory survivor, his wife said.
While he was waiting alone at the curb, a man in a suit came up to him and put his hand on his shoulder and said not to worry, “everything will be all right, the Lord is with you,” his wife said.
The man soon vanished, his wife recalled.
“That whole experience was really something for him,” Mrs. Chesney said. “I know a lot of the firemen felt he was going to carry a real burden and feel like he was responsible, which he wasn’t in any shape for it, because they ran into him.
“But it just seemed like the Lord just gave him peace about it, because he had always prayed, ‘Lord, help me when I drive, not to hurt anybody,’” his wife said.
Like many other firefighters, Mr. Chesney especially enjoyed the camaraderie of the firehouse, said his son, Larry Chesney of DeSoto.
Mr. Chesney demanded that his fire crews get along.
“There are times that if you were complaining ... he would bring a transfer paper up and say, ‘Here, sign this thing,’” Mr. Burris said.
The recipient might ask why, to which Mr. Chesney would reply, “If you can’t be here at this station on this shift and get along, then you need to move along,” Mr. Burris said.
Mr. Chesney retired in 1987.
He was an active member of Hampton Road Baptist Church in DeSoto. He was a volunteer coach for girls basketball and volleyball teams at Christian schools for several years, his son said.
In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Chesney is survived by another son, Mike Chesney of Saginaw, Mich.; two daughters, Sandra Curtis of De Kalb, Texas, and Ana Martin of Dallas; a sister, Joyce Phillips of Louisburg, Kan.; 18 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.