“I’m going to give the city of Ripon 25 years of my life.”
That is what Ron Feder told his wife, Dawn, in 1972 when he joined the Ripon Fire Department.
Fifty years later, he is still going.
Feder is celebrating a half century of service this year with what now is the Ripon Area Fire District. He was presented with awards from the department earlier this year, where he was joined by members of his family. “It’s just people-minded; thinking of other people,” Feder said about his service. “And we need the firefighters. If I couldn’t do it anymore, I wouldn’t be doing it. But I feel great. I can do it and hey, let’s go forward with it.”