Gerald M. Finnegan

Gerald M. Finnegan (died 1984) was a Billerica firefighter whose career in the town's fire department ran from 1946 to 1984. He rose to assistant chief, served as acting chief of the department in 1971 and 1972, and was deputy chief for the rest of his career. He was married in Billerica on November 4, 1950.

By 1970 he was assistant chief under Chief Paul H. Roper, and the town report for that year pictured the two men with the department's new Mack pumper. When Roper resigned in 1971, Finnegan became Acting Fire Chief and, with that office, the town's Forest Warden. His report for 1971 described a department of fifty-seven permanent men working out of three stations, with eleven pieces of motor apparatus and two emergency boats; four firefighters had been sent to a six-week course at the Massachusetts Fire Training Academy, most of the men had trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and a drill team under Captain Arthur McCaffrey had visited the elementary and junior high schools during Fire Prevention Week to teach fire safety. The department answered 1,291 calls that year and also helped the police with many of their ambulance calls. He sat ex officio on the Fire Station Committee appointed that year, and he remained acting chief until Harry Martell Jr. was appointed chief on September 12, 1972.

In the town election of March 1971 he was elected to the Planning Board for four years, with 2,232 votes to 1,719 for Ralph T. McDonald and 593 for David J. Montgomery. The board, enlarged to seven members in 1970, struggled that year and the next with "lack of quorums, mixed feelings, and absenteeism," and he resigned from it on November 21, 1972. Finnegan then served under Chief Martell as assistant, later deputy, chief through the 1970s and early 1980s.

Martell retired in March 1984 and Finnegan in April. He died on October 28, 1984, and the fire department's report for the year recorded "with deep regret" the death of Deputy Chief Finnegan. The town's memorial list for 1984 summed up his service: Fire Department 1946 to 1984, Deputy Fire Chief 1971 to 1984, Forest Warden, the Fire Station Committee and the Planning Board.

References

1. Billerica Town Report 1970, Fire Department report: photograph of Chief P. Roper and Assistant Chief G. Finnegan with the new pumper
2. Billerica Town Report 1971, town officers: Paul H. Roper resigned; Gerald M. Finnegan, Acting Fire Chief and Forest Warden
3. Billerica Town Report 1971, town election of March 6, 1971: Planning Board (4 years), Gerald M. Finnegan 2,232
4. Billerica Town Report 1971, report of the Fire Department signed by Gerald M. Finnegan, Acting Fire Chief
5. Billerica Town Report 1972, report of the Planning Board: resignation of Gerald Finnegan
6. Billerica Town Report 1979, Fire Department: Chief Harry Martell Jr., Assistant Chief Gerald M. Finnegan
7. Billerica Town Report 1984, Memoriams: Gerald M. Finnegan, died October 28, 1984; Fire Department 1946-1984, Deputy Fire Chief 1971-1984
8. Billerica Town Report 1984, Fire Department report: Deputy Chief Gerald Finnegan retired in April and died later in the year