Chaplain's Corner June 2025
Did you know that Father’s Day, celebrated every June, originated in tragedy? While tragedy is frequently experienced by those in the Fire Service as having terrible outcomes, in the case of one tragedy however, it provided the foundation for something positive: Father’s Day.
The history of Father's Day can be traced back to a terrible explosion in West Virginia that killed 362 men. The fathers among them left behind 475 children, with a further 31 born after the disaster. The “Monongah Mining Disaster” was a coal mine explosion on December 6, 1907 that has been described as the worst mining disaster in American history. It contributed to the creation of the United States Bureau of Mines, which overseas mine safety. Problems with ventilation, roof collapses, fumes, carbon monoxide were determined to be the cause of the explosion.
The following summer on July 5, 1908, a West Virginia church sponsored the nation’s first event explicitly in honor of fathers, and a Sunday sermon in memory of the 362 men who had died the previous December in the mine disaster.
The next year a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widower, tried to establish a holiday to recognize fathers which would be equivalent to Mother’s Day, which had already been established. Washington state celebrated the nation’s first statewide Father’s Day on June 19, 1910.
Like many forms of public service, membership in the Fire Service is often a family tradition, where sometimes fathers pass on their legacy of service to their sons and daughters. For many young members coming into the Fire Service, older members may serve as father figures. As you go through the month of June, thank a father or father figure, whether your own father or one you’ve grown to look to as a father in the Fire Service. Don’t wait for the sudden, unexpected loss of a father to tragedy, as happened to those nearly 500 children that winter day in West Virginia, to cause you to honor a father or father figure in your life this month!
I’m here when you need me, reach out anytime. Stay safe!
In Your Service,
Sean Gartland, Chaplain
Seangartland2009@yahoo.com (262) 352-9805