“After being at the fire department, I found out that they had the firehouse here and they had volunteers, so I immediately volunteered to come down here.”
Chances are if you’ve visited the Streets of Old Grand Rapids exhibit at the city’s public museum, you’ve seen Dave Tiesma. The 37-year veteran of the Grand Rapids Fire Department has been bringing the city’s firefighting history to life for visitors for the past 17 years.
“Being able to be somebody that actually did the job and worked with stuff, not somebody who came here and people told them about it, but I actually lived in the fire department for all those years.”
After logging more than 3,000 hours, the 85-year-old is retiring as a museum volunteer.
Mo Fleming is the museum’s volunteer coordinator.
“He’s a fantastic storyteller, but when he’s in the firehouse and he’s talking about the cribbage board in there, he played on that table. He slid down that pole. That’s not what you can do with an animated mannequin or something. That’s something you get when real people come and tell their stories.”
“You didn’t necessarily have fires every time you worked, but I did slide at least in time to go to dinner.”
Dave plans to relax and travel with his wife during his retirement.
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