After 42 years and seven months in public safety, Fire Chief Jack Collier is retiring.
A retirement ceremony for Collier, 66, will be at 11 a.m. Friday at the Harker Heights Activities Center, 400 Indian Trail.
Born and raised in Temple, Collier spent three years in the Army, a couple of years with Dr Pepper and a year as a paint salesman before finding a tenured career in fire service.
“A couple of my best buddies that I had gone to school with had gotten hired on at the Temple Fire Department,” Collier said. “They tried to talk me into it, and said you need to go down and take the test, man, this is the neatest job.”
He took the test and was hired Oct. 21, 1974, by the late Chief Wallace Bearor.
Later, handed a stethoscope, scissors and blood pressure cuff, Collier became one of the department’s first paramedics.
He advanced from being a firefighter to a driver, captain and deputy chief. After 21 years with the Temple Fire Department, Collier set his sights on a chief position in Del Rio, followed by New Braunfels.
Right after 9/11, Collier accepted a job with Texas A&M University’s fire training division and helped develop the state’s first fire officer certification course.