Mark Zaborney
The Blade, Toledo, Ohio
TOLEDO, Ohio — Charles G. Beaver, who was senior-most Toledo firefighter at his retirement and taught others the life-saving techniques he’d employed while on duty, died Friday in Hospice of Northwest Ohio, South Detroit Avenue. He was 74.
He had congestive heart failure, his wife, Judy, said, but dealt with other health concerns in recent years — a stroke, heart bypass surgery, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He broke a hip the day after Christmas.
“He was quite the fighter,” his wife said.
Mr. Beaver received the No. 1 badge during a ceremony in early 2000, succeeding Bill Brown as the firefighter with senior-most status.
“I didn’t think I’d be on the job long enough to get it, and all of a sudden, here it is,” Mr. Beaver said then.
He’d worked on the former C&O Railroad about five years after Navy service that included voyages aboard the USS Constitution and the USS Forrestal.
But the railroad job included long layoffs, and the Beavers had begun a family. He found steady employment in the Toledo fire force, starting in 1969. As a young firefighter, he was at Station 9 in South Toledo; Station 12 on Suder Avenue, and Station 13 in East Toledo.
He retired in January, 2001, from Station 23 on Laskey Road, where he was assigned the last 25 years of his service. A dinner was held at the station in his honor.
“When you stay at one station for a long time, it’s usually that you get along with the guys you work with and they get along with you,” said Robert Schwanzl, a retired Toledo assistant fire chief.
Mr. Beaver had a reputation as a good cook, and deputy and battalion fire chiefs and police officers were known to travel across town for his chicken and his egg foo young, his wife said.
He initially chose not to take paramedic training, his wife said.
“He hired on to fight fires,” she said. He was at the blaze in 1973 that destroyed Mancy’s restaurant on Phillips Avenue. The Mancy family rebuilt on the site.
But he later became proficient in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and other procedures. He received an award for performing the Heimlich maneuver on a choking woman. He responded to scenes of injury and medical conditions.
“It takes a very special person to do that job. That’s why I worked in an office,” his wife said. He was able to laugh at the light moments, she said.
He taught courses in CPR and basic life support at what is now the University of Toledo Medical Center, the former Medical College of Ohio.
“He really cared about people, and he felt the more people who knew could make a difference. It made him happy,” his wife said.
He played golf in a firefighters’ league and bowled in younger years. He was a student of history, particularly the U.S. Civil War.
In 1982, he bought a 1967 candy-apple red Mustang convertible, and it was “his pride and joy,” his wife said. “We went to a lot of car shows and enjoyed a lot of oldies music.”
They were members of Black Swamp Cruisers and took part in the annual chili cookoff to benefit Mobile Meals of Toledo.
He was born June 4, 1942, in Erie, Pa., to Jane and James Beaver and grew up in Buffalo, where he graduated from high school. His family moved to Toledo because of his father’s job, and after the Navy, he did too.
Surviving are his wife, Judith Beaver, whom he married Nov. 4, 1967; daughters Deborah Sagert and Susan Desjardins; brother, James Beaver; sister, Lucy Chanak, and five grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 2-8 p.m. Monday in Newcomer Funeral Home, Southwest Chapel, on Heatherdowns Boulevard, with a Last Alarm service at 7 p.m. Funeral services will be at noon Tuesday in the mortuary.
The family suggests tributes to the Toledo Firefighters Museum.
Copyright 2016 The Blade