CAVE CITY — Longtime Cave City firefighter Kenneth “Kenny” Wilson was honored as the Joe Coker Achievement Award recipient in October.
Wilson, 58, who has worked with the Cave City Fire Department for more than 40 years, received the award in October at the Three Rivers Firefighters Association meeting at Walnut Ridge.
“I didn’t expect it,” Wilson said. “[My family] tricked me into taking a vacation day and going to the meeting. It was just something I didn’t expect. I didn’t even know what was going on.”
Wilson was nominated for the award by Lt. Billy Penn of the Cave City Fire Department.
“Whenever I went there, and we ate, and the man who nominated me got up there and started talking, I knew it was me he was talking about,” Wilson said. “It was one of those feelings that I don’t think I can describe — overwhelming and unexpected.”
The late Joe Coker, the namesake of the award, was fire chief of the Walnut Ridge Fire Department and a former president of the Arkansas Association of Fire Chiefs. He also helped establish the Black River Technical College Fire Training Center in Pocahontas.
According to the letter written by Penn, “as fire chief, Wilson was instrumental in numerous fire-protection upgrades, including the addition of new water mains and four new hydrants, and construction of a new station in 1994 and three more hydrants in 1999. Previous mayors and city councilmen have said that Wilson always had a plan, was precise on purchases and costs, and acted in a very professional manner when presenting projects or reports to the council.”
Penn said, in his letter, that Wilson retired in 2003, as a result of being on the “old” retirement plan, having 25 years of service.
“But he didn’t quit, continuing his dedication to teaching the younger generation, serving his community, and offering stories and advice to anyone around the station,” Penn said. “His knowledge will continue to be passed around for many years, and he’s always willing to lend a helping hand.”
Wilson is a second-generation Cave City firefighter. His father, Daniel Wilson, served as chief in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. Kenny Wilson’s son Justin is a third-generation firefighter.
“I was raised in it,” Kenny Wilson said of working for the Fire Department. “I liked it.
“In small towns, you have to have the firemen and music director at church and the Little League baseball coach. People just have to step up and do those things. That’s my thing.”
Wilson graduated from Cave City High School in 1977 and joined the Cave City Fire Department in December 1977.
“Sometime around 1980, I got voted to be a senior engineer,” Wilson said. “I’ve been doing that ever since. I was an instructor for 10 years. I’ve been the safety officer for the past eight years. I was chief twice in 1994 and 1999.”
As a profession, Wilson was a master plumber. He became a journeyman pipe fitter in 1990, He opened a shop in 1995, doing fabrication work. He then changed to equipment repair. Three years ago, Wilson started a job at American Railcar Industries in Paragould.
Cave City Fire Chief Ronny Milligan said Wilson is a good pump operator, which is his key position now.
“I’m proud to call him my friend,” Milligan said of Wilson. “Right now, he’s our senior pump operator. He can tear one of those pumps apart and put it back together.”
Wilson said he doesn’t get the same rush he did when he started with the Fire Department in 1977.
“But I enjoy pumping trucks and operating trucks,” he said. “I enjoy putting a fire out and seeing it go out.
“I can’t do what I did 30 years ago. I can still do a little, and the chief won’t let me quit because I can still do it.”
Wilson said he never really considered becoming a full-time firefighter.
“It might have crossed my mind a few times, but I was never serious about going to Batesville or somewhere where they pay,” he said. “I was a pipe fitter, and that was what I liked to do. But I like firefighting, too. I don’t know if I would have made a good professional firefighter. I guess I could have. I did it here, but what’s the difference?”
Wilson said that in 40 years, he’s seen a lot of changes in firefighting when it comes to small departments like Cave City.
“When I got on at Cave City, small-town America, we didn’t have many rural fire departments like we do now,” he said. “But if you were in a town like Cave City and you had a 750-gallon-a-minute truck, you were big-time. Now they don’t even sell one under 1,500 gallons.
“There have been a lot of changes in building and construction. There have been a lot of changes in water supply. There’s been a lot of changes in 40 years.”
Staff writer Mark Buffalo can be reached at (501) 399-3676 or mbuffalo@arkansasonline.com.