Glen W. Ayers

Retired Rock Island Fire Department Chief Glen W. Ayers, 88, passed away on April 16 in Rock Island, Illinois.  A visitation will be from 9-11 am Saturday, April 20, 2019 at Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home and Crematory, Rock Island.  A graveside service will be in Chippiannock Cemetery, Rock Island, immediately following visitation.  Memorials may be made in care of Chippiannock Cemetery Heritage Foundation, Rock Island.

Glen hired onto the Rock Island Fire Department in 1955. He took over as Fire Chief ten years later when he was 35 years old, serving as Chief from 1965 to 1976. A photo of him as Chief and a plaque bearing his name are on the walls of Central Fire Station, which he built in 1969. Glen continued his career in the Chicago area and in Colorado, serving as the Fire Chief in Evanston, Illinois and in West Adams County, Colorado before retiring from public service. His career tradition remains alive in Rock Island, carried on by two of his grandsons who are firefighter paramedics with the Rock Island Fire Department.

Glen Walter Ayers was born 14 July 1930 to Everett Walter Ayers and Pansy (Hoelscher) Ayers and grew up during the Great Depression in rural Brooklyn Township in Schuyler County, Illinois. There was no electricity and no running water, and he finished eighth grade in a one-room country schoolhouse. He moved to Rock Island when he was 13 when his mother found work at the Rock Island Arsenal during World War II. After graduating from Rock Island High School he served in the Illinois National Guard and worked for the Rock Island Line and Northwestern Railroad before joining the fire department. He married June Darlene Doughty on 29 December 1951 in Davenport, Iowa and they raised four children together in Rock Island.

 Outside of his career, Glen was an avid traveler and adventurist, as well as a talented carpenter, builder and craftsman. He had a great love and appreciation for untamed landscapes and the wonder of rugged mountains. Glen and his family hunted grizzly bear, mountain sheep, elk, antelope, and deer in Alaska, Colorado and Wyoming over the years. He sailed the oceans, enjoyed visiting friends and family across Europe, and traveled extensively throughout the lower 48 and Alaska many times.

Glen and his second wife Natalia built a home in the Rocky Mountains near Buena Vista, Colorado. Glen finished the kitchen and a library with fine cabinetry he crafted by hand. Their home in Colorado served as a base camp for many visitors from across the U.S. and the world for over 20 years.

Glen is survived by his wife Natalia; his children Thereasa Ayers, Timothy Ayers and Tracy Ayers Farhan; 11 grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; and extended family.

He was preceded in death by his parents Everett and Pansy and his siblings Allyne, Mildred, Iva and Lyle; the mother of his children, June (Doughty) Ayers; and his beloved eldest son Thomas Ayers, former Chief Building Official of Rock Island.

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