Earl Sturges, 94, longtime firefighter

Earl H. Sturges of Sandy Spring, Md., a Ridgefield native who had been a volunteer fireman for a half century and was responding to calls well into his 70s, died Sunday, April 24, 2005, in Sandy Spring. He was 94 years old and the husband of the late Rita Polverari Sturges.

In 1999, when the Ridgefield Old Timers Club honored him, Mr. Sturges was called “The Firemen’s Fireman.” He had by that time been a volunteer firefighter for 68 years.

He was “always the first guy at the door at a fire,” said then Chief Richard McGlynn at a 1983 banquet honoring his more than 50 years of service. And though he had bowed out of active duty by his 80s, Mr. Sturges still participated in departmental events Ñ including riding in the Memorial Day Parade Ñ until recent years.

Earl Hull Sturges was born on Haviland Road on July 24, 1910, 13 years after the creation of the Ridgefield Volunteer Fire Department. He was the son of John and Ella Hull Sturges. His father, a carpenter, died when he was seven.

He attended the one-room Limestone Schoolhouse on Danbury Road and graduated from Hamilton High School on Bailey Avenue in 1929.

He had a long career as a house painter, starting out with his brother, Ernest, and his assistant, Peter Grommes. When his brother retired, Mr. Sturges and Pete Grommes formed Sturges and Grommes Painting Company.

In 1931, the year he turned 21, Mr. Sturges became a volunteer fireman. At the time, the department had three divisions; he joined the hook and ladder company.

Over the years he fought countless fires including a Peaceable Street blaze in which leaking gas exploded as he and Jack Leary were trapped in a basement, almost killing them both. He was burned on his hands and legs.

They fought fires with what today would be considered primitive equipment and without oxygen masks. “Often in fires, we had to crawl on the floor so we could breathe,” Mr. Sturges recalled in a 1983 interview.

“Half the time when I answered a fire call, I didn’t even put on a raincoat or boots, just went in my painter’s overalls.”

Mr. Sturges held every office in the department, including chief from 1948 to 1951. When he was honored in 1983 for over a half century of active service, Mr. Sturges was one of only two people to have volunteered that long with the department.

Many have sung his praises, including both President Ronald Reagan and Gov. William O’Neill, who sent personal congratulations for his service. But his achievement was perhaps best expressed by the late Elizabeth Leonard, who was first selectman in 1983: “How do you say something to someone who has given 50 years of his life to an ideal?”

Mr. Sturges was an avid hunter and fisherman, and had been a member of the Ramapoo Rifle and Revolver Club. He had attended the First Congregational Church.

In January 2004, he moved to Maryland to be closer to family.

Mr. Sturges is survived by two sons, Robert H. Sturgess correct spelling of Glenelgalso OK, Md., and David A. Sturges of Glenwood, Md.; four grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; several nieces; and his longtime friend, Nina H. Principi, of Hood River, Ore.

The Rev. Mark D. Allan of the First Congregational Church will conduct services Friday at 11 in the Kane Funeral Home, 25 Catoonah Street.

Burial will follow in St. Mary’s Cemetery.

Friends may call at the Kane Funeral Home on Thursday from 5 to 8.

Contributions in his memory may be made to the Ridgefield Fire Department Ambulance Fund, 6 Catoonah Street.