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01/17/2018 07:30 AMFor the past two years, the North Madison Volunteer Fire Company (aka the NoMads) has taken second place at the Madison Chamber of Commerce’s Souper Bowl event. On Saturday, Jan. 27, the NoMads will debut a new firehouse chili recipe in its best effort to take the blue ribbon from their culinary rivals: The Madison Hose Company.
“We have lost to the Hose Company the past two years, so this time it’s for pride, for bragging rights,” NoMads President Paul Harris says, smiling. “The Souper Bowl is a fun chance to connect with the community; for our neighbors, friends, and people the department has serviced to stop by and say ‘Hello.’”
The popular Souper Bowl features local restaurants, civic organizations, businesses, and community groups offering samples of soups, chilis, and stews in downtown Madison. The winners are determined by a people’s choice vote.
Strengthening community ties is exactly the reason Paul encouraged the NoMads to join the Chamber of Commerce when he was first elected to the job of president three years ago.
“It’s important for the fire departments to know what’s going on in town, and being part of the chamber is an excellent way to tell people what we do,” he says. “We meet more local people and learn about the businesses in town, and it all helps build trust in the community.”
Paul has called North Madison home for 23 years, when he moved from Chicago with his wife Kathy and their children, Brenton and Caitlan, after taking up a new job in Northford.
“We took out a map and looked for a new home within 20 minutes of work. We visited other shoreline towns, but we liked the charm of Madison, and the Surf Club—even though it was winter when we looked initially. It has a similar small town feel to our previous towns and we just fell in love with the place,” he says.
Joining the NoMads was one of Paul’s first tasks when he moved to Madison in 1994. A neighbor learned he had served on a volunteer fire department in Ohio and within half an hour, he had Paul signed up to the local department.
“Our company is 100 percent volunteer,” Paul says. “We have lawyers, school teachers, retired people, landscapers, and our chief is the head physician of the Emergency Department at Yale. They all have ‘real jobs,’ but when we get that call, there’s not a question—we have a job to do and we get it done. It’s a brotherhood. It takes a certain kind of person to run into the building when everyone is else is getting out.”
During his tenure, Paul has served as a line officer and lieutenant before being elected to the position of president. He says the company’s motto of “Neighbors Helping Neighbors” extends beyond the town borders.
“We have a great network with the fire departments of surrounding towns and we have an agreement of mutual aid. We give them resources and support when they need it, and with one phone call, they are there to help our town.”
Protecting people from fires in more than a part time duty for Paul. He has built a successful career in the fire industry. Currently the business development manager at Xtralis, Paul previously held senior positions in the international sales departments of leading commercial and industrial fire and safety alarm companies.
For 20 years, Paul worked in the international department at NOTIFIER, one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of engineered fire alarm systems, based at its central facility on Clintonville Road, Northford.
“It began as a family-owned company, Fire-Light Alarms, and they became NOTIFIER, and were then bought out by Honeywell Alarms,” Paul says. “I was recruited from Chicago to grow their international business…working with a network of independent distributors that design, install, and maintain the alarms.”
Paul’s career in international sales has taken him to more than 100 countries around the world, including more than 30 trips to Australia. Paul and his wife Kathy lived in China for several years, even considering—then reconsidering—a move to Saudi Arabia in the 1970s.
“We always took our children when we traveled overseas and when we had people visit, we’d have dinner together so they could meet people from all over the world. We believed that exposure to different cultures was so important for their education. Now both our children have careers in international (departments),” he says.
The great cities of the world are a long way from where Paul grew up: a small rural town outside of Cleveland, Ohio, called Valley View. A self-described “country bumpkin,” Paul’s world view changed when he left community college and volunteered to serve in the Army during the Vietnam War.
“I really believed that I could go over and help our country win the war, so I went down to the U.S. Army office and with one signature signed up for the military, the infantry, and the war…After six months of training, I spent one year based outside Saigon,” he says.
Paul qualified to train as a helicopter pilot, but instead chose to join the infantry: “I figured that I’d rather be shot at on the ground than in the sky.”
He told his parents that he was drafted, only confessing to signing up himself when he had returned safely to their home.
“It was a little different than I expected. I didn’t know what I signed up for; I underestimated the war,” he says. “I was an 18-year-old buck sergeant in charge of Army guys that were 10 or 15 years older than me. I wasn’t prepared for that responsibility. The goal was just to get everyone home in one piece. I met some great guys—it was all about teamwork. I grew up fast over there, and it changed my life.”
After serving out his commitment, Paul was discharged from the Army in 1969 and returned to his hometown. In the dead of winter, he was servicing tug boats on the Great Lakes when he answered a help wanted ad in the local newspapers and scored a job as a draftsman at the Automatic Sprinkler Company of America.
“I had no experience, but they said they would teach me everything—and most importantly, the job was inside,” he smiles. “After six months, the president called me into his office and told me that I should go back to school and that they’d pay 100 percent of my tuition if I got A’s and B’s.”
Paul took up the offer and graduated from Cleveland State University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, while designing sprinkler systems to save buildings from fire.
“I wanted to understand what happened before the sprinklers came on so I could design better systems, so I joined the local fire department in Hinckley, Ohio, and that’s where I got my medical and fire training.”
Decades later, and Paul’s service continues, as does his strong belief in the value of local volunteer fire companies.
“When I was 16 years old, we had a house fire in our kitchen and I watched the local fire department on the scene,” he says. “Eighty percent of the U.S. is serviced and protected by volunteer fire departments. In big cities, they have career firefighters, but in our small towns, it’s the volunteers that keep us safe.”
The Madison Chamber of Commerce hosts its third annual Souper Bowl event in downtown Madison on Saturday, Jan. 27, from noon to 2:30 p.m. Event sponsors are: Kirsten Adams of William Pitt Sotheby’s Realty, Country School of Madison, Madison Beach Hotel, North Madison Fire Department, R.J. Café, and Renewal by Andersen. For more information, call 203-245-7394.