Friends Will Honor Veteran Firefighter

Friends will honor veteran firefighter Capt. John P. Gryckiewicz remembers the good. Like rescuing a man from his North Camden house in a 1954 fire, and saving an invalid woman from her burning bedroom in 1966, acts of heroism that earned him commendations. He remembers the bad. Like finding a woman and her three children dead in the aftermath of another inferno. "You break your neck to do your best," Gryckiewicz says. "But sometimes when you get there, they're all dead." On March 1 at Kenney's in Cherry Hill, Gryckiewicz' friends and admirers will remember. They'll honor him at a retirement dinner after 30 years as one of Camden's most decorated and most respected fire captains and nearly 40 years as a member of the department. His retirement will be Camden's loss because Gryckiewicz is so much a part of the city he loves. "I really like Camden," says Gryckiewicz, who used to help neighborhood kids hone their athletic skills in the lot at Front and State. "It perturbs me the way the city went. I feel so badly to see these places vandalized. Some people don't take pride any more. They're given too much and don't have to work for it. They don't respect property." Born in Bridgeport, Conn., Gryckiewicz found a job with the Camden Fire Department in 1940. He spent a month at fire training school, worked at the old fire headquarters at 5th and Arch, and settled into his steady job. Steady? Camden firemen worked 84 hours a week and received $60 paychecks every two weeks. John remembers the 24-hour work days: "Everybody had housecleaning to do, either on the apparatus, first floor or offices. We'd spend a lot of training. There was no TV then, so we'd play cards in our leisure time. We'd eat well; an old Army cook would make sure of that," Gryckiewicz entered the Navy in 1941 and served as a machinist's mate on the Camden-built U.S.S. South Dakota, which earned 13 battle stars. He also got a hit off legendary Bob Feller when John's Dakota and Feller's U.S.S. Alabama did battle. Gryckiewicz returned to Camden when the war ended in 1945 and was promoted to fire captain in 1950. "There's so much more involved in being a fireman today," Gryckiewicz says. "The apparatus is so much more sophisticated. There's more to learn. The difference is like driving a Model T and a Lincoln Continental. "We had mostly older men in 1940. You picked up so much from the men you worked with. I remember what John Yates taught me. He was just an ordinary fireman. But he was one of the best. "Today, I think sometimes all of the knowledge and equipment we have can be too much. Plastics, chemicals — sometimes you're reluctant to make a move. Knowledge is OK. But there has to be the practical side of firefighting, too. "A young man today should have the feeling for being a fireman and the feeling for his fellow man. He shouldn't be there just for the security; he should be dedicated. The fellow who cares will be better prepared to do the job." Gryckiewicz, stationed in recent years at the new fire headquarters at Third and Federal, has many memories. He joined the department two months after the city's most infamous fire at Hollingshead Co. But the fire he remembers most vividly was the Garden State Race Track blaze because he was working part-time at the track and was thrust into the role of coordinator. "It was the worst I saw, and we were lucky to lose only two people," Gryckiewicz says. "No one could believe it didn't develop into a catastrophe." He remembers Garden State. He remembers the saves, the near-saves, the unfortunate misses. He remembers the camaraderie, the open-cab pumpers he drove to fires in the 1940s, fighting fires with booster lines before inch-and-a-half hoses came to the rescue. He remembers a city that didn't have boarded up stores from one end of Broadway to the other. He remembers when the alarm didn't sound so often. Gryckiewicz will have the time of his life at his retirement dinner. He is a fun-loving man who probably will lead his friends in song. But he wonders how it will feel when it is over. "It hasn't hit me yet — you don't know what you're going to do when it ends," Gryckiewicz says. "Sometimes when I was in the Navy I thought maybe I should have stayed. But I never missed a paycheck in Camden in 40 years. I've loved my work."