In Memory Of Our Brother

Our Chief

Skip

Thank you for helping to celebrate Skip, this is a true showing of how much one person can be loved and admired and respected by so many.  Warren “skip” Highwood, born December 18, 1942 he passed away Thursday the 22, of January 2009.  Everyone realizes what Skip is doing right now don’t they, he is looking down and with that little corner mouth smile or smirk some might say, he is shaking his head and saying you don’t need to do this, not for me.

 “Skip” what can be said, he was a loving Husband, Father, Grandfather, Great grandfather, brother, uncle, friend, and Fire Chief.  Most firefighter’s families feel that the fire department comes first, and I can understand why, but I don’t think that true.  Yes, we do rush out of holiday diners or birthday parties or even anniversary celebrations.  But we do it knowing that our families understand the commitment we make to help people in need, in their time of trouble.  To Nancy and the whole family thank you, for giving up your time with Skip. Don’t ever think you were second to us.  

 Nancy, you are very special to Skip, to my knowledge you were the only ones I know of to ever get married in the fire station, how many women would do that?  But you did it for Skip; it was special and meant a lot to him. I also know you put up with a lot, Skip and I would sit in the office and talk, he would tell me, Nancy or “mom” is mad at me or Nancy is upset because I won’t go to the doctor or go to the hospital, he would argue with her and tell her things like “No I am not going to the hospital this weekend Nancy, I am going to Missouri”.  After his visit or phone call from Nancy he would tell me I know she is just doing it because she cares.   And in most cases I am sure Nancy would give in, and skip would get his way. 

Todd, Stephanie, Heather, Nicky, Gwen, you all were very special and important to your dad, there are many times he would tell stories of you guys, whether it was coaching Todd at little league or the time Todd was 3 or 4 and took his lunch box and clobbered Skip over the head while he was asleep on the couch.  Or Steph’s adventures sneaking out of the house, or telling everyone that you were getting married, then you and Mike would be making him a grandpa.  Heather, he would tell the guy’s stories about having to drag you out of bed when you were small to respond to calls, and he was proud to tell everyone when you went to work for the A.T.F.  Nicky and Gwen, Skip never referred to you as step-daughters, when asked or if he was telling stories, you were his daughters.  Skip would say I have a son and 4 daughters.  Skip would talk about Nicky, and when she was younger she would see how far she could push that envelope with mom and dad.  But he also would say how you would go out of your way to make sure he did or had what he needed, or how you would give the nurse at the hospital what for because he wasn’t getting what he needed.  And he would talk about his private nurse Gwen, how she would make sure he got the right care when he was not in the hospital, or even if he was in the hospital.  And he knew you all would be ok, he knew his girls all made good choices in the men in their lives, he would refer to all of them as the boy’s.

The grand kids, Skip enjoyed each moment spent with each of you; he was concerned about each of you, the tone in his voice would change, it would have excitement in it when he talked of the grandsons going to Missouri with him, or taking Nathan and Evan to a movie.  Although he always would have to explain which grandsons were who, because of all the Michaels in the family.  He would attend Michael’s soccer games or Michael’s football games.  He was always concerned about the grand daughters, whether it was snowing and Morgan was driving to school or if Britney’s car was running ok.  He would refer to Britney as his little mother, Britney stayed with him for 8 weeks while Nancy was in Indy updating her training to return to work.  Skip is also a great-grandfather, and as Kenedi and Peyton and the other great-grand children yet to come  get older, I am sure that you older kids will be telling stories and making sure they know who pa-pa is and how special he was to each of you.  Lorain, his lifelong friend, I am sure you were more of a sister, he had a special place in his family for you; he always thought of you and included you and Ed in the family activities.  Carl, Skip would talk of you and Todd on many occasions, stories of your escapades as kids, also of your golf games you, Todd and your dad would make with him.

Missouri, Jr. we would hear a lot of you, Skip had many stories of his times and escapades in Missouri hunting or just visiting.  I now wish I would have went with Skip, he would ask if I wanted to go but things just never worked out so I could.  I really want to see this cabin he would talk of.  There was many stories about Jr. and his family, Mike and his son Teddy, Larry May, Dave Sheppard the Boys and the hunting trips.  Skips was a story teller, the thing is, they are fact not fiction even his story of the infamous Joint snake.  Skip would keep all of our full attention when he told his stories. 

Skip was the type of chief that never wanted accolades or credit for something, he treated each of us fairly and always put us before himself, he always put everyone before himself.  He always made sure the town was safe, even Wednesday night when our whole department went marching into the Porter Hospital at 9pm to visit him he was thinking of the town.  We took 2 fire engines to the hospital parked them on LaPorte ave. in front of his room, wheeled his bed over so he could see out the window and put all the emergency lights on.  First thing he did was lift his head up, looked out the window and seen the trucks, then he looked at me and shook his head, I knew what he was thinking, even though he could not speak he wanted to know who was covering the town.  I had to reassure him we had Liberty covering our station for calls. Skip had a way of showing his disapproval, it was not by raising his voice or yelling at you, he would just get that little smirk smile  with the corner of his mouth and shake his head.   We only would see that occasionally, so we knew if we got it he was not happy.  The paper had one story of such an occasion, it was not quit correct.  We had a firefighter that had been moving the aerial truck and accidentally struck the big tree across from the station, it crunched the basket pretty bad.  Skip had recently quit smoking about 2 months before and was not at the station at the time.  We had the truck around back of the station, Skip pulled up, got out of the truck walked around the front of the aerial looked up at the basket, got that little smirk smile and shook his head, he got in his truck never saying a word, went to the gas station and got a pack of cigarettes.  The firefighter later went to his office and said, you’ve got to say something. “At least call me a so and so”, actually it was a little more of an expletive.  Skip said “ok, you so and so go mail this” he threw him an envelope it was the insurance forms.

Skip even made our kids feel special; I guess maybe Steve’s boy Nick made me think of that and fully understand how much, a couple of us were in the chief’s office Friday and Steve was telling us he had been trying to explain to Nick  and Jake that Skip passed away.  At first Nick must not been sure which chief Steve was talking about then it clicked and Nick said the Sucker Chief.  To Nick, Skip was the Sucker Chief.  Skip always kept candy in the Firefighter Cookie jar that Nancy’s dad gave him on his desk.  Little did everyone know, Donna was Skip’s candy connection.  Skip would go over to the clerk’s office if he ran out of candy and get some from the basket on her desk, so if any of the kids came in he made sure he had candy in the jar.  Skip would talk to all the kids that came in, weather it was our kids or kids there for fire prevention programs, as they pass his office door he would say hi or how are you? As they pass.  Skip always thought of the kids, he would post drawings they would make for him and they would stay for years, he never took them down.  Until the last, Skip’s concern was his family, friends and fire department, Skip would be so proud of all the guys, as I am, how you came together, supported each other.  We will be Ok, and we will go on and move forward, we will never forget the lessons he taught.  Skip you fought long and hard it is time for us to take command.

Chief Highwood Rest in peace

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