Ed Hutchinson became Greensburg's fire chief when Harry Truman was president and retired 53 years later, and through those decades he was a community leader whose impact stretched far beyond the city's fire halls.
“He was not only a fire chief, but a great community servant. I am stunned today,” Greensburg Mayor Robert Bell said Sunday of Hutchinson's death Sunday morning at age 96 at Excela Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg.
“Anything that was Greensburg, he had his hands in it,” and he had an impact on Westmoreland County and on the state level as well, Bell said.
The current mayor recalled that as a youngster, he would see Hutchinson come to his house and talk with his father, Robert, who also was the mayor then, about how they could work together to improve the city.