By Martha Hardcastle
Dayton Daily News
Copyright 2007 Dayton Newspapers, Inc.
PHILLIPSBURG, Ohio — Steve Woolf isn’t the only son on the Phillipsburg fire department. Doug Woolf, 43, of Phillipsburg is following in his father’s footsteps as department chief. Son Jeff, 34, lives in Miamisburg and works for Reynolds & Reynolds.
Bob Woolf served 13 years as chief, stepping down in 1998 with a total of 38 years on the department.
“When Dad got into the fire department, the whole family got into the fire department,” Doug Woolf said. “I was 5, and they used me as a training dummy or a victim.”
There has never been any question about the love and respect of the Woolf boys for their dad. But he was never soft on them.
“Dad always disciplined his boys,” Doug Woolf said. “We were brought up in the old school. You didn’t back talk your parents or anything.”
Bob Woolf was the youngest of three and the only son growing up on a farm on Wellbaum Road in Clay Twp. Even though he and DaOnne were only a year apart at Phillipsburg school, they didn’t really get to know each other until a few years later, marrying in 1962.
“He was a mentor, and he mentored everybody who got into the fire service,” said Doug Woolf.
Son Steve was in the insurance business with his father and now has his own agency, Woolf Insurance, on National Road in Englewood.
“No. 1, he was my role model,” he said. “I wanted to be like him”
Brotherly love notwithstanding, Steve Woolf is adamant about some other factors.
“He was the best boss I ever had and the best fire chief I’ve ever worked with or for,” he said. “Maybe I didn’t know it as much when he was living how many lives he touched, influenced or befriended.”
The elder Woolf’s funeral was an emotional event in the village.
“When you sit back and watch what goes on at a funeral like that - Phillipsburg school used that as a community project,” Steve Woolf said. “They took all the students out of school and lined them up on the streets of the village as the funeral procession went by. They all saluted or had their hands on their hearts as the casket went by.”
The ceremony began with a bagpiper marching out of the Woolf’s driveway on Baker Lane, just north of Ohio 49.
“The bagpiper met the drum corps at (State Street) and led the engine up through the village for the last drive through the town he loved,” said Steve Woolf. “We were right behind the hearse in the procession, and when we got up there and saw those kids, we all just started bawling. Our minister, who was with us, even cried - he never saw anything so heart-striking as that. I coach some of those kids in pee wee football, and they later said, ‘We saw you crying.’ Joe Barczak, our former pastor from Emanuel Lutheran Church, was crying, too. We passed by the fire station and it was draped in black, and a line of firefighters from Columbus were stretched across the apron and saluting.”
The only way to deal with such a loss is to go on.
“All I can do is keep volunteering for my community, as I wish so many others would do,” Steve Woolf said.