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NEWS AND EVENTS Firefighter doesn't seek recognition it finds him Fire district honor Gardner man for unwavering dedication to the job
"He cam inside the house and was very impressed by the firefighters, and so I began taking him on police ride-alongs as well," said Willis Neal, Cory's father. His interaction with Johnson County's civil servants must have made quite the impression on young Cory. Now 30 years later, Cory Neal of Gardner, Kansas lead a life fully dedicated to serving others; He works full time as a Johnson County deputy sheriff, a logistics officer for S.E.R.T. (Sheriff's Emergency Response Team) and a volunteer firefighter for Johnson County Fire District #1. Standing face-to-face with an all-emcompassing, lethal heat might scare some people away from the job. But every fire Neal fights, every person he extricates from a burning car, he does out of the goodness of his hear, according to other firefighters. "Cory is the kind of guy that would have no problem giving yo the shirt off his back," said Trig Morley, also a firefighter at District #1, who has worked with Neal since he began in 2002. "I don't do it for the recognition," Neal said. "There are just things that need to be done that I've got the talent for, so I put it to use." His penchant for "fixing things" saved the district money because he was able to rebuild the pump drive on one of their fire trucks. "They said that they didn't make the part anymore and they would have to send it to England to be fixed," Neal said. "I asked if they had a schematic of the truck, and I just did it myself." Without Neal's handiwork, the repair would have taken several months and cost them approximately $9,000. While Neal does not ask for anything in return, last month he was noticed, and gratitude was delivered. At the Johnson County Fire District #1 firefighters' annual spring picnic, Neal, 37, was honored with both the Firefighter of the Year award as well as the Community Service of the Year award. When a firefighter is given these awards, it means he or she has not merely impressed one coworker, Morley said. "It means that everyone has noticed." Neal added that "it's a recognition that you've done quite a bit." Being honest, working hard, doing the job right the first time: These are some of the value Neal said were important in his household, where both his parents worked as humanities teachers in the Shawnee Mission School District. The values Neal was raised with have stuck with him through adulthood, and blossomed into a model work ethic. "He is self-motivated, he carries out every assigned duty, and he is one of the most dependable people at our station," said Morley, who had a hand in nominating Neal for the award. In fact, last year, Morley was honored with the Firefighter of the Year award. He said he enjoyed "passing down the torch" to Neal because he deserved it to much. Being a firefighter and working together in a district is like living in a brotherhood, so being able to give the award to a fellow brother held extra meaning, Morley said. "Not only do we volunteer together, we hang out, we know each other's families, we are groomsmen in each other's weddings - it's a big family," he said. It's a big, busy family. Neal carries four pagers and two cell phone with him at all times, and works an average of 65 hours a week. He even has to color code his calendar so he knows whether he is a firefighter, a deputy sheriff or a logistics officer on any given day. Just what is it that keeps Neal so dedicated to a life of the civil servant? He says he doesn't want to be in the limelight, that he would rather be the one who goes into a situation, gets the job done, and gets out. "At the end, I get satisfaction out of knowing that the mass chaos that I walked into has been alleviated by me," he explained. "Plus, driving the fire truck is really fun."
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Cory Neal recall how the fire truck gleamed down his street when he was 7 years old, and how the firefighters let neighborhood kids climb aboard and pretend to operate the tempting piece of machinery. 