1,400 mourn Olympic National Park firefighter from Port Townsend
Mary Bomar, director of the National Park Service, gives thanks to the Palmer family on behalf of the agency’s 20,000 workers at Monday’s memorial service for Andy Palmer. -- Photo by Diane Urbani de la Paz/Peninsula Daily News
By Diane Urbani de la Paz, Peninsula Daily News
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As the Port Angeles teenager stepped onto the stage at Fort Worden State Park's McCurdy Pavilion on Monday morning to address the throng of Palmer's friends, family and firefighters from across the state and nation, she offered two words:
"Just smile," Irwin said.
"Just celebrate that he was alive."
Palmer, the 18-year-old Olympic National Park firefighter from Port Townsend killed in the line of duty July 25, was Irwin's dear friend — and fan.
When his parents, Robert and Janet Palmer, moved from Port Angeles to Port Townsend four years ago, Andy Palmer took Irwin on a tour of his old house.
When she spotted the grand piano, she went to it and found Pachelbel's "Canon in D" awaiting her.
Irwin told Palmer this was her favorite classical piece to play; he told her it was his favorite to hear.
So she began. "Andy leans his head back. And I hear a sniffle," Irwin remembered.
The music had moved Palmer, a 240-pound, 6-foot-5 football player, to tears.
Seizing the moment
Later, when Palmer walked Irwin out to the car, she seized another moment for good measure.
"I smooched him," she said, raising her fist high while the crowd filling the pavilion laughed and applauded.
Then Irwin, who graduated from Port Angeles High School in June, played "Canon in D" again.
The assembled firefighters and chiefs, football players and coaches and family friends from across the North Olympic Peninsula closed their eyes.
Larger than life
A falling tree killed Palmer 10 days ago amid the Iron Complex fire in Shasta-Trinity National Forest near Weaverville, Calif.
He was the first National Park Service firefighter killed in three years, after Dan Holmes of Rochester, N.H., died in 2005.
But for those who came to mourn Palmer, the man still looms larger than life.
"He was our go-to guy" whenever friends needed a hand, said Christian DuBois, one of Palmer's fellow football players at Port Townsend High School.
"He refused monetary gain for helping out," but would happily accept a plate of food, DuBois added.
He loved seconds, too.
Despite the tears choking his voice, DuBois continued:
"Being outdoors was what Andy was meant to do. Andy had no regrets about taking this job, and neither should we. . . .
"I cherish every day I got to spend with him."
Palmer graduated from Port Townsend High in June and planned to attend Montana State University this fall.
His interests ranged from Roman architecture to renewable natural resources; favorite books included The Far Side Gallery by Gary Larson and Stephen Hawking's The Universe in a Nutshell.
Park Service director
Mary Bomar, director of the National Park Service; Mike Gregoire, husband of Gov. Chris Gregoire; and Karen Gustin, Olympic National Park superintendent; were among those who gave thanks to Palmer's parents.
"On behalf of the 20,000 men and women in the National Park Service family," Bomar said, "all of us are completely heartbroken."
She asked the mourners to also remember Daniel Packer, a fire chief from Pierce County who was killed July 26 while fighting the Panther fire near Happy Camp, Calif.
Gustin, like many at the memorial, spoke of Palmer's sheer love of wildlands.
She saw him when he was brand-new on the fire crew, and was reminded of what a thrill it was to work in national parks and forests.
"I knew that huge smile of his was reflective of our employees," Gustin said.
She knew, too, that Palmer's passion was "for protecting the resources we all deeply care about."
Full of kindness
The youngest of three sons, Palmer is also fondly remembered as a gentle giant who showed unstinting kindness to friends, teachers and strangers.
Bobby DuBois, the football coach who handed Palmer his diploma less than two months ago — also inside McCurdy Pavilion — spoke of the towering youngster's influence on his teammates.
"I imagine his friends will love each other more . . . and be kind, like Andy was," DuBois said.
Scott Ricardo, athletic director at Port Townsend High, also recalled Palmer's inner grace.
At the start of his senior year, Palmer was taken off the football team's first string.
"He just humbly worked harder and was kind about it, and cared for the team," Ricardo said.
Palmer later regained a starting position at right tackle, and finished his high school football career as "a bright and strong star."
Memorial scholarship
Ricardo spoke next of the Andy Palmer Memorial Scholarship to be shared by Port Angeles and Port Townsend high schools.
The scholarships should go not to the showiest athletes, but to the kindest young people, he said.
Palmer's purpose in life, Ricardo added, "was to set an example for all of us."
Toward the end of the memorial, the Rev. Bruce Bode of Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship read the words of Palmer's mother, Janet, and his father, Robert.
"We are all better for having known him," she wrote.
"Let us make him proud of us."
"Let there be no half-heartedness," added Robert.
T-shirts printed
Theresa Dobyns, 22, of Port Angeles, a friend who had forest-green "In Loving Memory" T-shirts printed in honor of Palmer, slipped outside the Fort Worden pavilion, weeping.
Keppie Keplinger, information officer for East Jefferson County Fire-Rescue, embraced her.
We must embrace life as Palmer did, Bode told the mourners.
"Our joy and sorrow are right next to each other, just as life and death are . . . but a hair's breadth apart," Bode said, adding that to restrain sadness is to avoid living life.
"Our embrace of the sorrow is what heals . . . the mourning, the tears, these are the cure for the wound," he said.
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: August 04. 2008 9:00PM