Encyclopedia Dubuque
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DUNPHY, Robert N.
Family History: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=family-vols&id=I5230
DUNPHY, Robert N. (Dubuque, IA, November 22, 1916-February 7, 1999) Dubuque Fire Chief from 1966 to 1983. Dunphy was appointed to the Dubuque FIRE DEPARTMENT in 1939 and served in the department for 44 years. The only exception was his two years of service in the U.S. Army on the Italian front in WORLD WAR II. He was promoted through the ranks of the fire department until 1966 when he was appointed Fire Chief.
Dunphy’s accomplishments included construction of three new fire stations during his tenure. Fire Station No. 2 (on Kennedy Road) was constructed in 1968 to provide fire protection for the rapidly expanding west side of town. In 1970, a new Fire Headquarters was constructed to replace the antiquated 1893 building that had been built for horse-drawn wagons. With this new building, a modern fire alarm system was also installed that replaced an existing system built in 1922. Then in 1980, the 100 year-old Engine House located at 18th and Central Avenue was replaced with a new building at 32nd and Central Avenue to better serve the north end of Dubuque.
Chief Dunphy was an innovator. In the early 1970s in conjunction with the Dubuque County Medical Society, he established the Emergency Medical Program (EMT-A) within the Fire Department. This program provided the citizens of Dubuque with the most up to date emergency medical treatment in the State of Iowa. He can be credited with establishing the first paramedic staffed fire department in the State of Iowa.
Within the Department, he instituted a full-time training officer and worked throughout his career for a training center that was finally built in Dubuque. He replaced all of the fire engines that were in service when he took office and purchased fully enclosed cabs to protect the firefighters from injury and the elements while responding to and from alarms. In addition, he expanded the Department to ninety-five men, adding a third platoon, in order to meet the new requirement to reduce the work week of the firefighters from 63 hours per week to 56 hours.
During his tenure, Chief Dunphy served in many offices, among them: President of the Missouri Valley Division of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, Charter President of the Iowa Association of Professional Fire Chiefs, Chairman of the Iowa Paid Chief’s Section of the Iowa Association of Fire Chiefs, and secretary of the former Fire and Police Retirement Board..
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Source:
"Robert Dunphy," Telegraph Herald, April 12, 1970, p. 110
Obituaries. Telegraph Herald, February 9, 1999, p. 4