One year to the day after burying his father, Tom Levy followed in his dad’s footsteps by officially becoming the acting chief of the Bridgewater Fire Department on Monday.
“It’s nothing that was planned,” said Levy, who was appointed to acting chief last week after serving as the deputy chief to former Chief George Rogers. “It’s divine intervention and it’s tradition.”
Levy’s great-grandfather and several of his uncles fought fires for the Bridgewater department. His brother, Michael, is a retired Bridgewater fire lieutenant, and his father, Clarence, was Levy’s first boss when the younger firefighter joined the ranks on July 1, 1985.
Levy, 55, said that he agreed with a post on a local town official’s Facebook page indicating Clarence would always be the “real” chief and Tom would be the junior chief. “If I could be half the man my father was, I’d be doing a good service to the community,” Levy said of Clarence, a World War II veteran and 10-year chief of the Bridgewater department. “My father’s call sign was ‘Car 3-0,’ and we’ve designated that as my call sign as a tradition and tribute to my father.”