Waters F. Tucker
Date of Birth: November 15, 1905
Date of Death: January 22, 1976

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY
FALLEN FIREFIGHTER

NAME: Waters F. Tucker.                                                                          AGE: 70

RANK:  Assistant Chief                                                                            BADGE #: NA

STATION:  Galesville Volunteer Fire Department Station #1

DATE OF DEATH: January 22, 1976

CIRCUMSTANCES OF DEATH: Assistant Chief Tucker suffered a massive heart attack while coupling hoses in preparation to fight a boat fire at Woodfield’s Fish and Oyster Company in Galesville. Assistant Chief Tucker was a longtime member and Past Chief of the department

BURIAL LOCATION: Friendship United Methodist Church Cemetery – West Friendship Road. (Anne Arundel County adc map 35-e-2), follow driveway back left corner of church, left side of driveway directly in front of “Taylor” headstone, to the right of “Leitch” headstone.

Notes: Articles – Evening Capital January 23, 1976

PLAQUES, MEMORIALS, DEDICATIONS, ETC.:

• Anne Arundel County Fallen Firefighters Memorial, Millersville
• Maryland Fire and Rescue Memorial, Annapolis, MD
• Waugh Chapel Station #5 dedicated to Firefighter Bauer, Firefighter Driggers, and Assistant Chief Tucker.

Evening Capital January 23, 1976

Tucker, Galesville Fire Aide

    Galesville, MD., (Special) – Funeral series for Waters F. Tucker, Assistant Chief of the Galesville Volunteer Fire Department, will be held at 2:30 P.M. tomorrow at the Galesville United Methodist Church.
    Mr. Tucker, who was 70 and lived in Galesville, died Thursday after an apparent heart attack while fighting a fire at Woodfield’s Fish and Oyster Company.
    A member of the fire company for nearly 45 years, he had served as chief at various times for nearly 20 years.
    He had retired at the beginning of the year as a carpenter for Robert O. Wood, a house builder for whom he had worked for more than 20 years.
    A native of Harwood, MD, he had earlier worked for other contractors and had served as a fireman, during World War II at Fort Meade.
    He is survived by his wife, the former Alice Taylor, a son, Waters Bryan Tucker, of Pasadena; a daughter, Mrs. Lorena Dawson, of Fairfax, VA; two sisters, Mrs. Ruth Smith of Galesville, and Mrs. Gladys Warren, of Nokomis, FL; a brother Edward I. Tucker, of Nokomis, FL, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Evening Capital Friday, January 23, 1976
Collapses after suffering heart attack
Volunteer, 70 dies fighting fire

By DAVID HUGHES Staff Writer

    The 70 year-old Assistant Chief of the Galesville Volunteer Fire Department collapsed as he was hooking up hoses at a fire yesterday and died of a heart attack en route to the Anne Arundel General Hospital.
    Today his friends and neighbors and the firemen who served with Waters Tucker of Church Lane mourn his death. But they also say Tucker died doing something he loved to do – fighting a fire. And they take some small consolation from that fact.
    Tucker’s career as a volunteer fireman started 53 years ago when he joined the Rescue Hose Company in Annapolis where he was living at the time. Later he moved to Galesville where he served as Chief for 20 years. Even after he retired from his job as a carpenter with the Robert O. Wood homebuilding firm in Galesville three weeks ago, he was determined to stay on as an active volunteer firefighter.
    He was at home watching television with his wife Alice yesterday when the alarm sounded at 4:55 P.M.
    Tucker rushed out the front door as he had on thousands of fire calls before.
    An explosion had taken place aboard a 30-foot oyster boat near the Woodfield Fish and Oyster Co. pier on the West River.
    The boat had been under repair on a marine railway at the company pier earlier in the day. An apparent gas leak led to the explosion after the boat was put in the water.
    William Woodfield, Jr was on the bow of the boat when the blast occurred. He turned and saw Elmer C. Benning, 62 come out of the cabin with his coat on fire. Woodfield helped him put out the flames.
    The two men climbed overboard and started crawling on the ice to the nearby shore. It was 20 degrees.
    When Tucker arrived, Chief Donald Helder put him in charge of laying hose to the West River. Helder ran out on the pier to direct the firefighting effort.  Rescue workers tended to Benning, who had suffered second degree burns on his arms, legs, and face.
    Hedler said Tucker was bending over to hoop up some hoses when he fell. Hedler thought he had tripped. But it soon became apparent that Tucker had collapsed. He was unconscious. Firemen carried him to the ambulance which was waiting to take Benning to Anne Arundel General Hospital.
    Benning was treated and released.
    The 15 remaining firefighters put out the fire which gutted the $8,000 oyster boat. Then they heard the news. Their assistant chief was dead on arrival at Anne Arundel General Hospital at 5:32 p.m.
    “If you had seen him, he looked like a 50 year-old.” Said Hedler explaining why the department allowed Tucker to continue to serve. Tucker was neede. And he was so healthy that many a younger firefighters had trouble keeping up with him.
    No one knew he had a heart problem. Hedler said he could count on one hand the numbers of days Tucker had been sick.
    “That’s what his life was. His family came first. Then came the fire department. And then came his friends, That’s what he thought about,” said Tucker’s son Bryan who live in Pasadena.
    Bryan was obviously influenced by his father’s interests. He is now a paid firefighter for Anne Arundel County who works as a driver at the Galesville station.
    Tucker was an independent sort of person. His son and daughter knew better than to try to discourage him from serving as a firefighter. In fact, after two years of reduced participation by Tucker, in the Galesville company, many of the men there asked him to come back and assume the post of Assistant Chief.
    “He did as he pleased. He’d tell you, you take care of yourself and I’ll take care of me,” said his daughter Mrs. Lorena Dawson of Fairfax, VA.
    County Fire Administrator Harry W. Klasmeier said Tucker was a personal friend of his.
    Klasmeier said Tucker had an “long career in the pioneer days when Galesville was the only company in all of South County. They even covered areas of Calvert County. He was a man of vast knowledge and background.
    Klasmeier agreed that Tucker was a little older than most firefighters but said he was an exceptional person in very good condition. “If he had to go, this is probably the way he wanted to go – doing what he did best,” concluded Klasmeier.

------------------Obituaries---------------------
Service set Sunday for Galesville fireman

    Waters Tucker, 70, the Assistant Chief of the Galesville Volunteer Fire Department, died on Thursday afternoon after suffering a heart attack while fighting a fire.
    Mr. Tucker collapsed while working at the scene of a boat fire in Galesville at the Woodfield Fish and Oyster Co. He was dead on arrival at Anne Arundel General Hospital.
    Born November 15, 1905, in Harwood, he was the son of Oden E. and Francis Harris Tucker.
    Mr. Tucker served as a volunteer fireman in Anne Arundel County for 53 years, 20 of them as Chief of the Galesville company.    He also worked as a carpenter with Robert O. Wood, a Galesville building contractor until three weeks ago when he retired.
    He was a member of the Galesville United Methodist Church.
    Visiting hours at the Hardesty Funeral Home will be from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. today.
    Funeral services will be held Sunday at the Galesville United Methodist Church at 2:30 p.m. Interment will follow at the Friendship Cemetery in Friendship.
    Surviving in addition to his wife, Alice Taylor Tucker, are: a son, Waters Bryan Tucker of Pasadena; a daughter, Mrs. Lorena Dawson of Fairfax, VA; two sisters, Ruth T. Smith of Galesville and Gladys T. Warren of Nokomis, FL; a brother, Edward I Tucker of Nokomis, FL.; and four grandchildren and two great grandchildren.