Charles Arena, 76; fire chief at Logan was safety expert

A quiet man with a commanding air, the man known as the Chief was something of a figure about the airport.

“I got to see firsthand how he ran the airport for the benefit of the travelers and everyone who worked there,’’ said Paul Buckley, of New Orleans, who met Mr. Arena in 1978 while general manager and a resident of Logan Airport’s Hilton Hotel. “One of the first things I noticed was how well he was respected by his men.’’

But it was Mr. Arena’s grandchildren, not a career’s worth of stories from his time as the fire chief and director of public safety for the Massachusetts Port Authority, that dominated the subject matter of his conversations.

“There is not one person on this earth who hadn’t met him and heard about his grandchildren and every single thing that they’ve done,’’ said his daughter, Marianne Gauthier of Lynn.

Mr. Arena died of cancer Oct. 20 at the Hospice of the North Shore in Danvers. He was 76.

Born in Swampscott and raised near the brickyards of Lynn, he graduated from Lynn English High School in 1951.

He enlisted in the US Navy and spent four years stationed in Newfoundland, part of that time during the Korean War. Afterward, Mr. Arena returned to Boston and joined Massport’s Fire Department at Logan Airport, according to his daughter.

After about a decade on the job, Mr. Arena was appointed chief, making him at the time the youngest fire chief in Massachusetts, Gauthier said.

Bradley said Mr. Arena led with subtlety, garnering respect from his men for his job knowledge and the way he handled himself “literally, under fire,’’ he said. He had the ability to quickly set people at ease with his warm demeanor and would be the first to drop everything to help others, his daughter said.

“No matter what was going on, what chaos was happening, he was always the voice of reason,’’ she said.

In addition to leading his department, Mr. Arena began consulting for fire and police departments worldwide and later for the governments of Singapore and Taiwan. In 1975, while consulting for the Chubb Co. in London, Mr. Arena was granted an audience with Queen Elizabeth II, his daughter said.

In 1979, Mr. Arena was appointed director of public safety for Massport, on top of his firefighting duties. He served in both capacities concurrently and found himself in charge of Massport’s Fire Department and that of the Boston Seaport and the Mystic-Tobin Bridge, as well as State Police Troop F.

During this time, he also worked closely with the Secret Service to coordinate the Boston visits of Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush. He also was the first to greet Pope John Paul II during his 1979 visit to Boston, Bradley said.

In the early 1980s, Mr. Arena and his wife of 25 years, Priscilla, divorced. In 1987, he retired from Massport and was appointed an Essex County commissioner, filling the term of his stepfather, Raymond Reardon, after his death. He won the seat the following year.

Over the years, Mr. Arena also taught courses in fire science and labor law at North Shore Community College, served as president of the Fire Safety Council in Boston, and, early in his firefighting career, as a legislative representative for the Massachusetts State Firefighters’ Union.

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Arena leaves two other daughters, Debra Oblenes of Lynn and Kim of Middleton; a son, Charles of Nahant; a brother, Robert F. of Beverly; three grandsons; four granddaughters; two great-granddaughters; and a great-grandson.

A funeral Mass will be said at 9 a.m. today at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Nahant. Burial will be in Greenlawn Cemetery in Nahant.

Correction: Because of a reporting error, an obituary on Charles Arena, retired fire chief and public safety director for the Massachusetts Port Authority, misspelled the name of his longtime friend, Paul Buckley of New Orleans.