Tributes to Paul Gleason
1946 - 2003

If you would like to add your comments, email Abercrombie. Please put "Gleason" in the subject line. Thanks.

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I did not know Paul Gleason as a firefighter, I knew him as a teacher. I work at Colorado State University and have often taken advantage of the "one free class a semester" benefit at the University. A year ago I decided to deter from the graduate level engineering classes that I had been indulging in for decades and divert into the Forestry Department to take their "Wildland Fire Behavior" class. You see I have been a volunteer firefighter "on the side" for 20 years and thought I would take the class and finally get my certifications. On the first day of class, in walked Paul - full of energy, clearly truly in love with his chosen profession, but perhaps a bit nervous about the prospect of teaching 50-60 college students. Throughout the course of the semester he did a great job of conveying his incredible depth of knowledge about wildland fire behavior. With 20 years of firefighting experience I wasn't expecting to learn a lot and was just looking to nab the certification. Boy was I wrong. I was really taken in by the science of wildland fire behavior. Frankly, I don't think a more "academic" teacher would have done as good a job of "sucking me in" to the subject. Paul was not always the ideal teacher - chiding us for not skipping class when he thought the day was too nice and we should be out snowboarding or just enjoying this beautiful planet. Paul's love of his job and wealth of knowledge about the subject came through in everything he shared with us and I will always be grateful for having him as my instructor.

Thanks & Adios,
CJD

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I first met Paul Gleason in the summer of 1966. I was a lad of 18 (a boy really) just out of high school and Paul was a man of 20, just returned to the Dalton Shots from National Guard training. Although we were crewmates, his two years of experience and his natural leadership abilities made him someone I looked up to and admired. All the same, we became good friends. He would have been crew pusher that summer had he not gone into the National Guard. He could work rings around all of us and had a knack for encouraging each of us to do more than we ever imagined without being mean. Paul could also party with the best of them. So I don't embarrass myself or his memory, I will only state that the Dearhead Caper of the Buckhorn Bar in Baldy Village and the Green Monster on the lower reaches of the Glendora Mountain Road were courtesy of the two of us and a few others. I was with him on the Loop Fire in 1966 when the El Cariso Crew was trapped. It affected me deeply as well. The way he was with the rest of us -- as the extent of the tragedy became apparent -- touched me deeply. The most significant person in both of our lives at that time was our Superintendent, Chuck Hartley. He was beyond great. Paul has admitted that Chuck was his most important mentor and I would say the same thing myself.

I worked for Paul on the Dalton Hot Shots in 1968 as well. As the season dawned, Paul and I were the only people on the crew with any fire experience at all (besides the foreman and super). He was crew pusher and I was squad boss. After a week of hazard reduction, we came back from our days off and began training the crew. We got our first fire call of the season that season and Paul and I were teaching the fine points of fire safety in the back of the crew truck as we were screaming code 3 to the other side of the forest. That was the first fire of a very busy fire season. We continued to be good friends that year.

Paul was part of an unusual story for me that summer and I don't think he realized it. A friend of mine and I decided to arrive at the camp at Tanbark Flats the night before we were due to report. Paul came into the barracks and greeted us. He held out a battered Rosary and said that he found it hanging on some Manzanita a few miles away where he was cutting a fire break. He wanted to know what it was, I told him and he gave it to me. It just so happened that I had been baptized Roman Catholic the previous day and had taken my first Holy Communion that very morning. It was tradition that a first communion gift be a Rosary, but I had no one to give me a Rosary. Paul was an agent of God's grace in giving me the Rosary that day. This is especially important because many years later, after a degree and career in forest fire, I studied for the priesthood. I am now a priest in an Independent Catholic Church and carry that rosary with me every day.

I was sorry to hear that Paul had passed. Although we hadn't seen each other in decades, he was one of those few people who influenced my young life. I pray for him often.

Fr. Bob Withrow

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In Memory of Paul "The Bear" Gleason

I worked for Paul in the late 60"s on the Dalton Hot Shots. To this day I have never known an individual quite like him. He was a boss who led by example. He commanded respect and not demanded respect. He's the one person who actually had the ability to will his body to do anything, "Mind Over Matter". He would lead the crew in PT's going up "Poop Out Hill", over and under obstacles, through the Lysimeter tunnels at Tanbark Flats, and Ram Training which was climbing rock walls. There was nobody that could keep up with Paul, we tried like hell but it was impossible. We would be cranking out 3 to 10 pull-ups and Paul would do 30, 40, or more. Back then the crews would run one chainsaw cutting fireline. Paul could keep the whole crew going with his one Homelight Super XL 12 Chainsaw. He was the most amazing sawyer. He use to pick up the saw playing it like a lead guitar player in a rock band while the rest of us would be taking 5. The guy would go, go, and go while fighting fire. His endurance level was incredible. Even though he was like a machine while fighting fire, he was always concerned about our safety.

To me working for and with Paul as a rookie and a seasoned grunt instilled a real sense of pride in the Hot Shots that I will never forget. To me Paul was the "Ultimate Hot Shot". If there was ever an "All Star Hot Shot Crew", Paul would be in the lead.

Good bye Paul, you will be missed but never forgotten.

Glen P. Smith
"Colorado" (Paul gave me this name my rookie year in 1968)

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Paul was Guadalupe National Park Burn Boss for the Bowl East and West Rx fires (Complexity Level 1).  Larry Henderson, Park Superintendent, 11/98 said to Paul,

"You helped us make history here at Guadalupe Mountains by assisting us in completing the park's first management burn in the high country relict conifer forest... Without expertise such as yours, it would not have been possible."

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Paul planned and executed the first Rx burn for  The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in CO, and provided on-going consultation in development of the fire management plan at Phantom Canyon Preserve. Mark Burget, TNC Colorado State Director 1996-2003, said to Paul,

"Thanks to you, we were able to turn our plans into reality."

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I met Paul back in the mid-80's when he was with the Zig-Zag shots and I was a squab of some 15 years experience. I was a trainee Fire Behavior Analyst and for the first time in my firefighting life trying to step up to something other than chain saw and pulaski operation.

Paul in the 80's already wore on his sleeve his concept of being a "Student of Fire". He influenced many of us. We took our understanding of wildland fire to a different level. Paul never lost sight of the best reason to be a "Student of Fire": FIREFIGHTER SAFETY!!. Then Paul's simple concept of LCES. How many lives have been saved by LCES?

He was a great teacher with simple, pure motivation and a greatly educating, entertaining, inspiring manner. His S490 Advanced Fire Behavior course influenced many firefighters into further pursuit as "Students' of Fire". In Paul's memory, several of us who helped Paul instruct S490 are trying to resurrect Paul's cadre. This will be tough without Paul but Paul would have wanted it that way.

And, oh yeah, a Paul story:

A whole bunch of us, including Paul, converged on Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas, in about November, 1999 to complete a several thousand acre broadcast prescribed fire in timber. The premise was simple: lots of ping pong balls and nobody on the ground for maximum acreage and minimum exposure. There were basically no values at risk.

Well it turns out that we put a few too many ignitions in the wrong place as black smoke was coming up in "The Bowl" one morning and with winds that were about 50 MPH, too high for helo use. Park management wanted us to go deal with it. Paul and I, and several other 50-somethings, put on our gear and headed for the 6-mile-3000-feet-straight-up trail to get us up to the burn. Paul beat all of us up there and about 6 of us busted hump for about the next 12 hours and late into the night to wrassle down our bonus acres. I will never forget sitting down with Paul and the rest of the group at about 2300 that night in the fading light and heat of our fire. Paul was as alert and alive and introspective as he ever was despite an entire day of kick-ass firefighting. The rest of us were just plain frickin tired.

I believe this may have been the next to the last time that Paul went mano-a-mano with wildland fire. It certainly was his last time that he had fun doing it. His last time was the following year at Bandelier National Park--the Cerro Grande debacle. Many of us know how deeply Cerro Grande affected Paul. Paul should never have been put to the duress he was subjected to by the National Park Service over Cerro Grande. He was just there trying to help, trying to keep folks safe.

Paul is deeply missed by all of us who worked with him in so many different capacities. His intellect, his humor, his mere presence is irreplaceable. His legacy will be how well we can now carry on the many concepts that Paul espoused, all of those which lead to the same place: FIREFIGHTER SAFETY. We will struggle along now without him.

Tim Stubbs

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