William Reimer, New Hope's pie man and fire chief

He and a few others began the department in the 1960s, when the city had no hydrants and no firetruck.

By ALEX EBERT, Star Tribune

Last update: June 28, 2009 - 9:28 PM

By day, William Reimer was the New Hope pie-delivery man, making his run to local restaurants before breakfast. By night, he climbed a distinctly different occupational ladder as a founding member of the city's Volunteer Fire Department -- a passion that lasted throughout his long life of community service.

In 1969, Reimer was hired as the New Hope fire chief, and he took his night job full time. After his 25-year stint as chief, he became president of the Minnesota State Fire Chiefs Association, through which he promoted fire safety and legislation before retiring in 1985.

Reimer, 87, died June 22 from pneumonia and kidney failure. Those knew him said he remained active, enjoying his family and firefighting friends, until his last days.

In the basement of a New Hope liquor store that doubled as City Hall, Reimer and about 10 other locals laid the foundation for what became the New Hope Fire Department, a rag-tag crew that eventually grew and merged into the three-station, 70-member West Metro Fire Department.

"He was a part of history," longtime friend and fellow firefighter George Lilley said. "He was a good chief, and he ran things well," showing up at fires no matter how late, and afterward helping prepare the engine for the next run.

Before the volunteers acquired their first firetruck in the early 1960s, the group assisted the Robbinsdale department. New Hope had no fire hydrants, so Reimer's crew bought a gas tanker truck at a junk yard and converted it into a water carrier.

But things changed when Reimer became full-time chief. He got the city to buy firetrucks and even managed to pay his volunteers $1 a fire, Reimer's friend Leon (Doc) Brewer said.

And even though he had to be up and delivering at dawn, he would respond to every call, "to the point where my mom was wondering when he would ever come home," Reimer's daughter Susan Bodin said.

Lilley said that Reimer had what it took to be a firefighter. "It takes a special kind of person, and it takes a special kind of family," he said.

After retiring from the department in 1984 and as president of the association in 1984-85, Reimer kept up with department members, visiting the station often. Some original members of the New Hope crew started "Company 6," a group of the original New Hope firefighters who would go out to eat every other month, and Reimer was in constant attendance.

Relatives and friends said they treasured Reimer for his good nature and humor.

"He could make you laugh in the worst of times," Bodin said. "I think he was always just doing something to help."

His wife, Delores, to whom he was married 52 years, died in 1998.

Besides Bodin, Reimer is survived by special friend Doris Smith; two daughters, Mary Hackbarth and Janice Lehan; two sons, John and David; 13 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Services have been held.

Alex Ebert • 612-673-4264

Recent Obituaries stories

Deaths elsewhere - June 28, 2009

Deaths elsewhere - Morris Lasker, 92, the federal judge who sentenced Ivan Boesky to prison in a 1980s insider trading scandal and helped eliminate horrid conditions in New York City jails, died last Friday in Cambridge, Mass. In 1987, he sentenced Boesky to three years in prison in what was then Wall Street's biggest insider trading case, saying it was essential to incarcerate white-collar criminals. More