[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 21161]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



               TWO FIREFIGHTERS PROVIDE EXEMPLARY SERVICE

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                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 8, 1999

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to commend two of my constituents, 
William Herman and Evan DeVries. Mr. Herman and Mr. DeVries are both 
volunteer firefighters with over fifty years of service in Rockland 
County.
  William Herman began his firematic career by serving in the Federal 
Fire Service at Camp Shanks in Orangeburg during the Second World War 
and as a member of the Hook and Ladder Company in Pearl River.
  After the War, he joined the Excelsior Fire Engine Company, where he 
has now served for more than fifty years. He has served as Lieutenant 
and Captain in Excelsior, and answered more than 8,000 fire calls for 
assistance from his fellow citizens in his half century career.
  William Herman was also the first fire instructor for the county of 
Rockland, one of the founders of the modern Fire Training Center in 
Pomona, and a constant advocate for education for firefighters. In his 
career as an instructor, William Herman has taught more than 10,000 
firefighters, and has himself taken more than 5,000 hours of training, 
to keep himself fully aware of changes in the fire service and fire 
technology.
  At 85 years of age, he is still active in service as an instructor, 
and as a member of the excelsior Engine Company.
  Evan DeVries, now in his seventy first year, has served for fifty 
years as a volunteer firefighter in the Nyack and Pearl River Fire 
Departments. After serving as chief in the Pearl River Fire Department 
from 1974 to 1976, he is an active driver with the Excelsior Fire 
Engine Company, responding weekly to the hundreds of alarms the company 
handles every year.
  Mr. Speaker, in a day and age when community service is so much out 
of vogue in some quarters, the example of volunteer fireman, William 
Herman and Evan DeVries, should be commended. Their century of service 
to the people of Rockland County and to my Congressional District 
should be appropriately noted by this Congress.

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