Bob Noonan, of South Hempstead, electrician, fire chief, dies at 80

As a volunteer firefighter and eventually two-time chief of the Hempstead Fire Department, Bob Noonan was “dedicated and devoted,” said Peter Occhipinti, a friend and fellow firefighter for nearly 50 years. In even a brief conversation, Occhipinti stressed that phrase three times: dedicated and devoted.

“The fire department was his life’s passion,” explained Occhipinti, a former chief himself who now lives in Seaford but still volunteers at the Village of Hempstead’s 193-year-old department. “Bob thrived on both the challenges and the friendships he made.”

“I wanted to be like him,” said his son, Robert S. Noonan, of Oakdale, who followed his father into firefighting, served a term as Hempstead Fire Department chief and is now manager of the Smithtown Fire District. “He was always stressing, ‘Do things the right way, treat people the right way, and if you're going to do a job, be proud of it.’ ”

Daughter Tricia Candido, of Oakdale, also followed in her father’s footsteps, serving for eight years in his fire station. “He was my hero,” she said.

Among his peers, his son said, “he was very well-respected. Even when you didn't agree with him, you understood and respected him for his opinion.”

“He was our go-to guy,” Occhipinti confirmed. “When there was a bylaw question or a department issue, we'd always go to Bob for his opinion, and his opinion was usually the right one.”

Noonan, who died of a cardiac event at his South Hempstead home on June 9, six days shy of his 81st birthday, had forged those opinions in a lifetime of both literal and metaphoric fire. His experiences included combat in the Vietnam War, where he rose to become a sergeant in the Marine Corps, and then decades working his way up from rookie to chief at the Hempstead Fire Department.

He was born Robert Alban Noonan on June 15, 1944, in Flushing, the elder of two children of Alban Martin Noonan, a construction worker listed as “unable to work” in the 1950 U.S. Census, and Agnes Martin Noonan. The family by 1950 was living in Hempstead, but shortly thereafter, Robert S. Noonan said, Alban “left when [my father] was very young, maybe 7 years old.” Bob Noonan would not see his father again until shortly before Alban’s death in 1985.

Raised by a mother who married and divorced multiple times, moving with her children often throughout Long Island, Bob Noonan attended several different schools and even a boarding school before eventually graduating from Hempstead High School in 1962. He became a Hempstead Fire Department volunteer the following year, and enlisted in the Marines in 1964. He saw combat — earning a Vietnam Service Medal with two campaign stars, among other accolades — and spent 13 weeks in 1966 learning photo interpretation at the Army Intelligence Center at Fort Holabird, Maryland.

In 1967, he transferred to the Marine Corps Reserve, and the following year, he married Linda Newton. The couple moved to South Hempstead in October 1971 and started a family. Bob Noonan became a union electrician, and for a time “had his own electrical business,” his son said.

Noonan served one-year terms as Hempstead Fire Department chief in 1980 and 1989. He was also a longtime member of the Hempstead Flukes Drill Team and of the 7th Battalion Chiefs Association. And while he was retired as an electrician, “he never really retired from the fire department,” Occhipinti said.

In addition to his wife and two children, he is survived by a sister, Dana Wolstad, of East Meadow, and three grandchildren.

After viewings on June 11 and 12 at Bellmore Funeral Home, in North Bellmore, and a service there the following day, Noonan was buried with military honors June 13 at the Cemetery of the Holy Rood in Westbury.