Photo Courtesy of Assemblywoman Pheffer Amato’s Office
Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato (D-Howard Beach; second from l.) on Saturday presented an Assembly Resolution to Edwin Wilmarth, Jr. for 50 years of service with the Broad Channel Volunteer Fire Department.
Wilmarth, who turned 70 on Monday, is a sixth-generation volunteer firefighter, and still serves as an Engineer in the VFD. All three of his children became volunteer firefighters as well.
“Mr. Wilmarth has served as a firefighter, a company officer, and an elected deputy chief from 1975 – 1977,” said Pheffer Amato, who was joined at Saturday’s celebration by her mom, Queens County Clerk Audrey Pheffer, and her predecessor in the Assembly, Phil Goldfeder. “For the last twenty-plus years, he’s held the rank of chief engineer, where he is in charge of vehicle maintenance, as well as the rank of head chauffeur, training new members on how to drive and pump engines, all while still actively responding to alarms. He’s also held the rank of president of the Volunteer Firemen’s Association of the City of New York, representing the many other volunteer fire departments in our city. Wilmarth has dedicated his entire adult life to the volunteer fire service and to the town of Broad Channel, and it speaks volumes that all three of his children went into the service with him. We owe him a huge debt of gratitude, and may God make us all as productive, energetic, faithful and wonderful people at age 70 as the chief is today!”
