MORLEY, Mich. — Morley Area Fire and Rescue is mourning the death of Fire Chief Dan Deyo.
The department announced Deyo’s death on Facebook Sunday. It says he passed away Saturday at Spectrum Butterworth hospital, surrounded by his family.
Deyo served for over 53 years, working in Aetna & Deerfield Townships and surrounding areas since 1968.
Locally born and bred, a twist of fate prompted him to follow in his dad’s footsteps all those years ago.
Fire Chief Dan Deyo
“He just fell right into a very good position. It was wonderful because he was brought up in it.”
Flash forward decades into a career that made the Chief one of the most instantly recognizable faces in this small town, Village President Henry Peterson said, Deyo’s fingerprints are hard to miss.
“He just had the right… respect for the village and the community,” Peterson recalled.
“He cared about people?”
“Everybody,” he responded. “There wasn’t anybody he wasn’t there for… It’s a heck of a legacy.”
Nowhere more so than the long-time chief’s home away from home all of those years.
A sign along the road in front of the fire hall asked locals to “Pray for the Deyo family.”
It was here among the ladder trucks and reflective gear Deyo led the charge to overhaul, update and modernize the fleet.
He also spearheaded the department’s move to its present location from its original facility--which is now the Morley Police Department--up the road.
His gear was still sitting in its locker Monday.
“He knew how to get things done,” Peterson recalled. “He could just do anything.”
Tributes poured in on social media Monday.
A post from Morley Area Fire and Rescue called the Chief’s work “selfless” and had wracked up dozens of shares by air-time.
“He was a true icon,” Peterson related.
A larger than life footprint that’s still being measured.
An impact potentially is best seen in Deyo’s own daughter, who’s a full-time first responder in Grand Rapids, yet still building upon the family legacy in Morley, where she remains on the roster as a volunteer firefighter and emergency responder.
“He was top-notch,” Peterson said. “He just kept going back for more education to just be the best there was. And he truly was. There will never be anyone to fill his shoes on what the man did.”
13 On Your Side was told the assistant fire chief would be stepping in temporarily.
Morley Stanwood Community schools will be dismissing students at noon this Friday so the high school gymnasium can be used for the funeral, according to a post on the district’s Facebook page.
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