6 IslandVibesIOP.com NEWS IOPFD’s Hathaway honored with Key to the City after 36 years of service By L. C. Leach III or longtime Isle of Palms Fire Department Deputy Fire Chief Richard Hathaway, being a firefighter is in his family’s DNA – it was in his sights even before he started school. Now, after 36 years of serving “the greatest profession in the world,” Hathaway stepped down from the department recently. On Sept. 24, IOP City Council bestowed him a Key to the City in recognition of his outstanding and exemplary service. The honor once symbolized the freedom of the recipient to enter and leave a guarded and walled medieval city at will. Today, it confers trust and honor – and is perhaps IOP’s rarest award. “The proclamation was signed by all of our firefighters,” said IOP Fire Chief Craig Oliverius at the Sept. 24 presentation at City Hall. “It has been absolutely phenomenal and a pleasure to work with Chief ‘Hat’ as we call him.” So far, during the combined tenure of current Mayor Phillip Pounds and former mayors Jimmy Carroll, Dick Cronin and Mike Sottile going back to 2001, there have been only three Key to the City recipients. Pounds added that his only regret in presenting Hathaway with the honor is not being able to keep him in the department, “which would be my preference.” “He worked to make us safer and more efficient by bringing new ideas, implementing new programs and mentoring to the new hires,” Pounds said. “We have a ton of amazing personnel in our fire department, and Deputy Chief Hathaway is one of those amazing people.” City council went one step further by approving a resolution to name the training room at the Public Safety Building in Hathaway’s honor “to ensure that future generations will remember his contributions to public safety,” Pounds said. Hathaway’s road to providing those public safety contributions began at an uncle’s fire department in Wichita, Kansas, almost before his first conscious memory. “It was always great to visit his fire house,” recalled Hathaway. “I have a picture of myself at probably age 3 or 4, riding my big wheel with my plastic fire helmet on my head. All of my friends growing up also went into the fire service Deputy Fire Chief Richard Hathaway in full battalion gear F 803.586.9553 | McCombsKipp.com A Father/Daughter Team that Treats You Like Family! Happy Thanksgiving! Continued on Page 7
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