Fireman's Fund Donates $7500

Member Milestones - Mark Lesniak

A Fireman’s Wife’s Prayer
 

For All of 2006 the Fort Washington Fire Company Responded to:
    601 Alarms
    Averaging 18 responders per call
    Totaling 4982 responder hours

Born in December 1940, Edward (Ed) Schuler was raised in the Ambler Borough area, first residing on Francis Avenue in Lower Gwynedd and then relocating to North Spring Garden Street at the age of eleven.  Along with his father and brother John he was an amateur “HAM” radio enthusiast. Ed, the older of two boys attended Ambler High School, graduating in 1958. Immediately after graduating, Ed began assembly work for the Teletronics Company of Ambler to earn money for college.  The following year, Ed decided to pursue an associate’s degree in Electronic Technology at Penn State.  

Upon graduation, Ed was employed as a Technical Aide for Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Two years later, Ed decided to take a position with Drexelbrook Engineering, a start-up company, which at the time was based in Roslyn.  He remained with Drexelbrook Engineering for the next 37 years, working in the engineering, marketing and sales departments  which often involved a heavy travel schedule that took him to all 50 states and about two dozen countries worldwide.  In 2000 Schuler retired from Drexelbrook Engineering. 

Ed was first married in 1962 to Helen Barnes, with whom he had a daughter Susan and now has two grandchildren, Michael and Heather.  In 1988, Schuler married his current wife of nineteen years, Virginia (Racz).  In doing so, Ed became the stepfather of Ernie Racz, who is our current Battalion Chief. Given the involvement of his stepson, his desire to pursue volunteer work, and his intent to stay busy in retirement, Ed decided to join the Fort Washington Fire Company in 2000 as a fire policeman.  After completing the required Fire Police training provided by the County, Ed was sworn in by Bill Gift, then President of the Board of Commissioners of Upper Dublin Township.

While Schuler himself did not possess any personal fire department experience when he joined, he came with a legacy of involvement.  Ed’s great grandfather, Lewis Farrington, answered calls with the Wissahickon Fire Company in the early 1900’s when they were equipped with a horse drawn steam pumper.  Schuler’s great uncle was one of the Seddon boys from Flourtown that constructed a one of a kind Seddon Fire Engine for the Fort Washington Fire Company in 1928.

 In 2003, then president of the Fort Washington Fire Company No.1 Steve Daly, tasked Ed with the formation of an IT Committee.  Since its inception, members of  the committee have created an Incident Reporting System that meets state and federal reporting requirements, constructed two websites for the company (one for the general public and one for members only), and installed a local area network with member access from the outside. 

Ed is the Chairman of the Policy Committee, which is responsible for formulating and shaping fire company policies.  He is also involved with the Accreditation Committee, which is currently striving to make FWFC only the second all Volunteer Fire Company to receive internationally recognized accreditation. Ed is now serving in his fourth year as Company Secretary and Board member. 

Ed Schuler wears many hats around the firehouse: one minute he’ll be directing traffic or taking pictures at an incident, the next minute, he’ll be installing new software or troubleshooting network glitches. Nevertheless, Ed plays a valuable and unique role in the Fort Washington Fire Company No.1.  His knowledge and experience has not only helped save money for the  taxpayers of Upper Dublin, but has also helped the Fort Washington Fire Company No.1 move into the 21st century as a top notch volunteer organization.