Longtime firefighter Capt. Dwight “Ike” Beal, who served Monroe County Fire Rescue, the Key Largo Volunteer Fire-Rescue Department and the Key Largo Volunteer Ambulance Corps for more than 30 years, died on Oct. 28 after a six-year battle with stomach cancer. He was of 73.
Beal was heavily involved in the Upper Keys community as a firefighter and retired from Monroe County Fire Rescue as battalion chief in 2011. He was diagnosed with a rare gastro-intestinal tumor the following year.
Beal and wife Karen moved from the Pittsburgh area to the Keys in 1972 on their honeymoon.
“It didn’t take Dwight long to decide that working in the sunshine near the waterfront beat out the lousy weather, high taxes and his job as a milling machine operator. This is when Dwight became ‘Ike’ and started growing that crazy mustache,” Karen said.