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Donald Long, Last Glenbrook Fire Chief, 1994 Glenview Citizen Of Year, Passes Away

Dawson: ‘We Were So Fortunate To Have Him In Our Corner’

Donald Long. (Photo provided)

Funeral services for Donald Long, 93, of Glenview — with full military honors — are scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 23 at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Glenview. Bunting will also be placed outside Glenview Fire Station No. 6 on Waukegan Road.

Long was a lifelong Glenview resident whose professional and volunteer work in the village has left a lasting legacy to this day. He died Thursday, Sept. 16 surrounded by family members.

Long played leading roles in many civic and professional organizations and was recognized for that service at the 1994 Glenview Civic Awards ceremony when he was presented the Citizen of the Year Award.

“Don was so active in the community, we were so fortunate to have him in our corner,” Glenview History Center President Beverly Dawson said.

Long’s service to the community, both professionally and as a volunteer, included the Glenview History Center where he served as president, Joseph M. Sesterhenn American Legion Post 166 where he served as commander, Glenview Council of the U.S. Navy League, of which he served as president, the Glenview Naval Air Station Museum Board of Directors along with Glenview Rotary Sunrise, Glenview Park District Starlite Singers, Immanuel Lutheran Church, team captain for Rebuilding Together and Civil War reenactor.

Long grew up on a farm in Glenview, which has since become Flick Park. That passion for farm life led him to volunteer as a docent at Wagner Farm.

Besides all that, Long put out a lot of fires around Glenview. After returning to Glenview after serving in the Army in the Korean War, he became a firefighter with the Glenbrook Rural Fire District, which at the time was an all-volunteer fire department.

His obituary said he not only was one of the first three firefighters to be hired on as professional firefighters, but rose through the ranks to become chief. He was also the last Glenbrook fire chief before the merger with the Glenview Fire Dept.

Glenbrook Professional Firefighters Association Union Local 4186 President Jesse Gallagher said Long led the department through the transition from an all-volunteer to an all-professional fire department in the 1970s, “And that’s a big deal.”

“Donald Long helped set the stage for this to be a great fire department. He put his whole life into this job and we’re still grateful,” Gallagher said from Fire Station No. 8 on Landwehr Road where a portrait of Long still hangs.

Dawson said, “We would be out at lunch and some firefighters, some much younger, would stop to shake his hand. They held him in such high regard.”

Dawson recalled a story Long related about his first call fighting a fire as a young volunteer, which she said helped shape his view. 

Long and firefighters were dispatched to a pharmacy fire on Glenview Road — a fire that included chemicals. Dawson Long called it his first “trial by fire.”

Post 166 Cmdr. Wayne Carle called Long both generous and friendly. He said Post 166 would send an honor guard to the visitation and is working with the Army to have a rifle squad join soldiers at Thursday’s funeral to perform a rifle salute.  

Carle said Long performed in Civil War reenactments as a Union soldier at The Grove in Glenview.

Immanuel Lutheran Church is located at 1850 Chestnut Ave.

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