Edward Cloonan, at 90; was Waltham fire chief, WWII hero

By Bryan Marquard, Globe Staff | May 23, 2009

In January 1945, Edward A. Cloonan Jr. was a staff sergeant with the 70th Infantry Division in Europe during World War II when he and other US soldiers were ambushed. As bullets flew, one struck him in the chest, tearing into a Catholic daily missal.

"It was a prayer book that his mother had sent to him," said Mr. Cloonan's son Richard, of Manassas, Va. "Basically it saved his life. He had it in his upper left chest pocket, right over his heart, and he would have been mortally wounded."

Spared on the battlefield, Mr. Cloonan went home to the job he had started just before joining the Army and rose to become chief of the Waltham Fire Department, a position he held for 20 years. Mr. Cloonan, who lived in the city of his birth his entire life, died Tuesday in his Waltham home. He was 90.

"It's an incredible story," said Mr. Cloonan's son Ned of Greenwich, Conn., calling the prayer book a kind of spiritual body armor.

"I've seen this missal," he said. "There's a hole and burn marks all around, but it acted as the very first Kevlar. I mean, it was God's Kevlar."

Mr. Cloonan graduated in 1936 from St. Mary's High School."His father was a policeman for the city of Waltham," Richard said. "I think that's where he got his sense of service to the community."

Joining the fire department in 1941, Mr. Cloonan was a call firefighter before leaving to fight in World War II. He served in the 275th Infantry Regiment of the 70th Infantry Division, which was known as the Trailblazers, and fought in France, Germany, and the Battle of the Bulge.

For helping to lead troops under heavy fire on three separate days in Philippsbourg, France, and Saarbrucken, Germany, Mr. Cloonan was awarded a Bronze Star for his heroism. Despite the honor, he was reticent about discussing his wartime service.

"This is a guy who never spoke about the war until five or six years ago," Ned said. "He always participated in the various alumni services, but never talked about what he saw. He basically went to honor all those people who didn't come back."

Mr. Cloonan had specific plans for his return to Waltham.

"When he was in the war, he said to guys in the service, 'This is what I want. I'm going to go home, I'm going to join the fire department, and I'm going to marry an Irish girl,' " his son said.

The Irish girl turned out to be Patricia Sullivan of Wellesley, whom he met through a relative. They married 61 years ago.

But before marrying, he was already back with the Waltham Fire Department, where he was promoted to lieutenant in 1948, to captain in 1951, and to deputy fire chief in 1954. Ten years later, Mr. Cloonan was named chief of the department, a position he held until 1984.

"He came up through the ranks very quickly," said Waltham Fire Chief Richard Cardillo, who joined the department while Mr. Cloonan was the boss and became chief in 2005. "He was chief for 20 years. I can't even imagine that."

A strong proponent of training new personnel, Mr. Cloonan was among the fire officials throughout the state who helped found the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy. He also served as president of the Fire Chiefs Association of Massachusetts.

"He felt that every firefighter should have training before they were put in harm's way," Cardillo said. "When the fire academy first started, they actually came to Waltham to use our training tower, and we would loan them equipment."

In Waltham, he said, Mr. Cloonan either implemented or set in motion innovations that are now considered integral parts of the department.

"He made the department what it is today," Cardillo said. "His vision back then - not all of it came about under him - was carried out through the following chiefs to where we are now. But the concepts originated when he was chief. He set a standard that I don't think can be duplicated. We can strive for it, and we should."

Among the changes Mr. Cloonan brought about or advocated were bringing "the self-contained breathing apparatus to Waltham," Cardillo said, along with setting in motion plans that resulted in the department having what's known as a heavy rescue vehicle, filled with equipment that can be used in emergencies.

"In the fire department, he believed in the firefighters, number one," said Mr. Cloonan's son Richard. "To the men who worked with him, he was one of them, because he came up through the ranks and knew what it was like."

Ned Cloonan said that when his father "walked into a room he had a presence. When he spoke, people listened. When he expressed his opinion, he did it in a gentlemanly manner. People listened carefully and often took action based on what they heard."

Among those opinions was that he always wanted to stay in Waltham.

"He took great pride in this city," Ned said. "It was the place where he was born and he never felt any need to leave."

In addition to his wife and two sons, Mr. Cloonan leaves two daughters, Jane Bates of Great Diamond Island, Maine, and Elizabeth Henderson of Chelmsford; another son, John, of West Caldwell, N.J.; nine grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 23 in St. Mary Church in Waltham. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery in Waltham.

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