THE LAST ALARM
THE QUINTESSENTIAL FIREMAN: REMEMBERING BOB MONTELLA SR.
BROOKHAVEN >> Among his many roles at the Brookhaven Fire Department, former Chief Robert Montella took great pride in mentoring new volunteers and keeping an eye on finances.
Around the firehouse where he was fondly known as “Big Bob,” his door was always open. He was eager to share his vast experience whenever he was asked, or simply listen when someone had a problem.
He liked to joke around, but when it came time for serious business, he expected nothing less than the best from the crew.
“No matter how bad a situation might have been, he would never lose control and he instilled confidence in everyone else at the scene,” career Philadelphia firefighter John “JJ” Bonsall said of one of his first chief officers. “You always knew he was looking out for you and everybody. You always felt that under his command, you were in good hands.”
Montella’s death on Monday, Dec. 3, leaves a void in the department where the 76-year-old St. James High School alum served for nearly five decades.
“Thank you Bob, for the memories and your service,” reads the post by Brookhaven Fire Company Station 52 announcing his passing on Facebook.
“He was all about the fire service. He ran it like the military. You show respect and respect would be returned,” said his oldest son, Brookhaven Fire Chief Robert Montella Jr. A family affair
The Montella brothers, Rob Jr. and Dave, were barely school age when they started tagging along with their dad to the firehouse. Their earliest memories trace back to Briarcliffe Fire Company Station 75 in Darby Township, where Montella began his volunteer service in his late teens and rose through the ranks to assistant chief.
“Even at that young age, we could sense the camaraderie. It was family,” said Dave, 51, who serves as an engineer and member of the board of governors at the firehouse, as well as chief of the Upper Providence Police Department.
When Montella moved his family from Darby Township to Brookhaven some 46 years ago, one of the first things he did was sign up as a volunteer firefighter for the borough. Again, he rose through the ranks - foreman, captain, assistant chief and, ultimately, chief.
And again, more family.
“There was no loss of continuity,” not for Montella, and not for his two sons or their own two sons, who all grew up to follow in the elder Montella’s footsteps in the fire service, either as a volunteer or a professional, Dave said. Nothing short of a family affair, the brothers’ stepmother, their wives and their daughters also served the department, as contributing members. he found
“My dad was all about family, our family and the firehouse family,” said Rob Jr., 53.
As both “families” joined Friday to say goodbye, it was hard to tell where one left off and the other began. A good leader When their father stepped down as fire chief in 2001, after serving for three years, Rob Jr. stepped up to the post, which he proudly holds to this day. More recently, the elder Montella served as treasurer and chairman of the board of governors for the department. In both capacities, he remained active in the day-to-day activities of the firehouse.
“He only stopped riding the trucks five or six years ago,” Rob Jr. said.
“Our lives at a very young age revolved around community service and the fire department,” said Dave, his eyes welling. “Our dad taught us about leadership. His teachings along the way are what put us both where we are now.”
It was Montella Sr.’s father,
98-year-old Albert Montella of Middletown who, according to Rob, told his father as a young boy growing up on Academy Avenue in Briarcliffe, “Get a hobby.”
So he did.
“What he found was a second home in the Briarcliffe Fire Department,” Rob Jr. said. “He was in his late teens when he joined … There were always so many people around. Socially, everything revolved around the firehouse.”
Once their dad dedicated himself to the volunteer fire service, Rob and Dave agree that he never looked back. And he instilled in his sons a sense of civic duty, which they have passed on to a third generation.
When they each turned
16, both Rob Jr. and Dave joined the Brookhaven Fire Company as junior firefighters. They both served under their dad when he was assistant chief, and then as chief.
“He was tough but in a way to make you a stronger person. He wanted you to be a better person,” Rob Jr. said.
Brookhaven Fire President Jon Grant was an engineer for the department when Montella came to Brookhaven.
“He was definitely an asset to the department because he had experience. A lot of people want to help, but they have no experience,” recalled Grant.
Grant and Montella became fast friends.
“He was always joking around. But when he needed to be serious, he was,” Grant said. “He was a good leader.” ‘Like a second father’ Looking back, Brookhaven Deputy Fire Chief Joseph Zamonski said when he first met Montella, “he made me feel like he was my second father … He helped me and fellow firefighters.
‘One thing I learned from Bob is that he never judged anyone. He never put anyone down,” Zamonski said.
If Montella had a motto, Bonsall said it would have sounded something like this: Follow your dreams. Keep your head on straight. Never lose sight of your goal.
That’s how Bonsall, will remember the man who helped to pave his professional path when he joined the firehouse as a 14-yearold cadet, a program established by Montella to attract youthful volunteers and hopefully retain them as full firefighters when they turned 18.
“Bob was more than a chief. He was a true leader,” said Bonsall. “As one of my first chief officers, he played a huge role in where my life went. He was kind of like a father figure, especially to me. He really guided me. He cared about us all doing well and his door was always open. But he was also tough on us.”
Even as cadets, whose role was very limited, Bonsall said Montella made them feel like an important part of the firehouse.
“We were held responsible just like the other firefighters,” he said.
Bonsall recalled that Montella Sr. would make all the cadets show him their report cards. If they were not doing well in a class, he would ban them from the firehouse until they improved their grade – not as punishment, but as incentive.
Chris Rodgers, a former Brookhaven fire captain, joined the firehouse as a junior firefighter at age 16.
Under Montella Sr., he said, “You had to earn your keep … but he was always there to show members the ropes.”
When Rodgers at age 21 became a lieutenant under Rob Jr., Montella Sr. reminded him, “There is a lot more to wearing that white hat than just looking good.”
A final tribute
On Friday, Montella was recognized with a firefighter’s funeral. At least 500 mourners gathered at Our Lady of Charity Church to pay respects to Montella, who was buried in his Class A uniform.
Members who either began as junior firefighters under Montella’s leadership, or are juniors now in Brookhaven, served as pallbearers. An honor guard consisted of active Brookhaven firefighters, according to Brookhaven Assistant Fire Chief Charles Leslie, who along with Lt. Joseph Bynum organized the solemn sendoff.
Following a Mass, a funeral procession was led by police cars from Brookhaven and Upper Providence, respectively.
As the hearse passed the fire station on its way to Montella’s final resting place in Mount Hope Cemetery in Aston, Grant sounded the fire siren one last time for his friend and fellow volunteer.
At the cemetery, two firefighters who recently returned from military duty, Kevin Dugan and Lauren Dunn, folded the American flag that had draped Montella’s casket. The flag was presented to Zamonski who, in turn, presented it to Montella’s beloved wife of 16 years, Ann.
“Rest in peace, 52-9,” Leslie said later, a sentiment echoed by many of his brothers and sisters in the fire service.