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10/10/2018 08:30 AMAs a lifelong North Haven resident and a veteran of several facets of public safety, Tom Muir is a dedicated member of the community. He’s worked as an ambulance technician, a member of the fire-police, and is today a certified pistol and shotgun instructor.
“I wanted to give back to my community,” Tom says. “A lot of people take everything for granted. I don’t. When they need you, you got to be there. You got to be dedicated, and I think I’m dedicated.”
Tom started his professional career as a fireman in New Haven, though he retired after an injury and began volunteering for the fire-police in North Haven. He graduated from North Haven schools in 1973 and earned an associated degree in science from Gateway. Later, he became an emergency medical technician (EMT).
Tom’s left leg was recently amputated after a serious infection, but he doesn’t plan to let the loss of his leg slow him down. He’s waiting for a prosthesis, but he expects the new leg to allow him to stay active.
“Once I get my leg, I’m going back…to the fire-police,” he says. “I can’t let nothing stop me.”
He’s been working in the field since he left Gateway in 1981, either as a professional or a volunteer, even spending some time as a technician in a North Haven ambulance.
“I still got a little more in me. I’m 63, but I want to do another two years,” he says.
Tom and his wife, Susan, lived briefly in Orange, where he continued his work as a volunteer for the fire department, but it wasn’t long before they returned to North Haven to live in the house where his mother lived.
“I love this town,” he says.
During his service for the fire-police, Tom was called to the standoff that led to an explosion in May 2018. He was stationed to keep passersby away from the scene.
“The explosion you could feel all over the neighborhood. It actually shook my truck,” he says.
In high school, hockey was an important part of his life. He played on the team for three years, getting up early every day to practice before school.
He says that after school, he’d come home to play hockey on the pond. If they weren’t playing there, it might be street hockey.
“I’m a diehard Rangers fan,” he says.
Tom is still invested in winter sports. He was even the assistant coach for Milford High School’s hockey team for the 2016-2017 school year.
“It was time consuming…You’ve got to be dedicated to do that, and I was dedicated,” he says. “I mean, we didn’t have a winning streak, but, hey, the kids played. They had fun.”
He says that skiing never held his interest—going up and down the mountain is too repetitive, but in snowmobiling, he found his groove.
It began when a friend of his invited him on a trip to Canada, still Tom’s favorite place to go snowmobiling.
“Those things, they’re fast. Up where we went, it’s a mountain,” he says. “Takes you five days to do the whole thing, we went for the whole five days.”
Just as his amputation isn’t going to stop his work with the fire-police, it won’t slow him down when it comes to snowmobiling.
“I have a sled in the garage. Once I get my new leg, I’m going snowmobiling,” Tom says. “You just can’t let it get to you.”
Tom has worked with the fire-police for 19 years. For two years, he served as president of the Montowese Fire Association, through which he has undertaken most of his charity work for things like the Yale Toy Closet and local soup kitchens.
“Lot of charity work for the soup kitchens and all that so people on the holidays have a meal,” Tom says. “We give a lot of money away [to] needy people.”
According to Tom, the association delivered three truckloads of toys to the children’s hospital.
Today, Tom lives with his wife, two of his children, Alison and James, and a grandson, Ayden.
His daughter, Christine, works for the military at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland and his son William serves with the Air Force. He’s stationed in Kansas after some time serving abroad in Japan.
“I’m proud of [them],” Tom said.
Recently, Tom was made a justice of the peace, giving him the power to perform marriage ceremonies, act as a notary, and continue to serve the town.