| Chester County's Hero Plaque program, previously a tribute to fallen police officers, expanded Wednesday November 2 to add firefighters killed in the line of duty to the bronze plaques lining the Market Street sidewalk of the historic courthouse in West Chester.
A brief ceremony attended by more than 100 firefighters, law-enforcement personnel, and county officials honored Roy A. Harris, assistant chief of the Po-Mar-Lin Fire Company in Unionville. He died May 25, 1982, when he and four colleagues were struck by a vehicle that veered from its lane as the firefighters were refueling a pumper truck on the Route 82 shoulder after a fire.
Harris's sister, Peg Cook, said she will never forget receiving the phone call about the accident involving her youngest brother, who was so committed to firefighting that he and his wife moved so he could live closer to the station. "It seems like yesterday," not nearly 30 years ago, she said. John A. "Jackie" Weer, Chester County's assistant chief fire marshal and president of the Po-Mar-Lin Fire Company, one of more than a dozen of Harris's relatives who attended the tribute, called his uncle "a mentor to most and a friend to all," someone who inspired his family to pursue community service. "Uncle Roy's leadership continues today," he said. Weer also said, "There are many people here today whose lives are still affected by what happened on that night … many of us remember it like it was last night. This plaque and the ones already placed here and the ones to follow are not only a remembrance but also a reminder to all of how precious our lives are and how quickly it can all change. The memorial is "a place to honor not only assistant chief Roy Harris, but to all first responders who have given the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of all Chester County citizens."
Ed Toner, president of local FOP, said it is fitting that fallen police officers and firefighters be memorialized together. "Today it is really ironic how this works out where police and fire work together day in and day out in everyday life and today we will lay a plaque for one of our (firefighter) heroes to remember that person alongside of these officers on this hallow ground," Toner said.
John DiBuonaventuro, president of the Chester County Hero Fund, said Harris's selfless background included a stint in Vietnam and service as assistant fire chief for a brigade at Hewlett-Packard, where he worked. Harris's plaque was unveiled alongside eight others, all fallen police officers. One of them, Kennett Square Officer William W. Davis, was Harris's cousin, DiBuonaventuro said.
Chester County's Hero Plaque program was modeled after one started in Philadelphia in 2000 by lawyer and boxing promoter Jimmy Binns, who attended Wednesday's tribute. Binns said the ceremony, the ninth in Chester County, represented the 247th in the region. Public servants like Harris "take their civic duty to heart," Binns told the crowd. "He lived like a hero."
In 2009, Chester County's first plaque honored Douglas H. Pyle, a 20-year-old Parkesburg officer who, on Sept. 15, 1988, was returning from a police training program when he was killed in a motorcycle crash. Tredyffrin Township Police Sgt. John Bailey, former president of Chester County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 11 and one of the program organizers, said the tributes had been so well-received that a decision was made to add firefighters. |
