Daniel Markham, 49, ex-fire marshal, dies

Daniel Herbert Markham, Nassau County's first black fire marshal and a commissioner and former chief of the Roosevelt Fire Department, died April 18 at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow from complications of multiple sclerosis. He was 49.

"Firefighting was his love," said his sister, Patricia Woodside, of Tampa, Fla. "His family grew accustomed to the squawk of his fire scanner and watching him race off to a blaze or emergency."

When disability prevented him from going on fire calls, Markham ran for and was elected to two terms as a fire commissioner from 2003 to 2008, said his family and the current chief Garland Moore.

"Because he had been a fire chief, he knew how to deal with the chiefs without trying to be the chief," said Garland Moore, the current department chief. He added that not only was Markham the first and only black county fire marshal, he was also the first and only black instructor at the Nassau County Fire Academy.

A lifelong resident of Roosevelt, Markham graduated from W.T. Clarke High School in Westbury, which he attended under a special agreement between the Roosevelt and East Meadow districts for pre-engineering students. He won National Merit and state Regents scholarships and attended the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and then SUNY Farmingdale.

He worked as an electrical engineer at Aeroflex in Plainview until 1994, when the county hired him as a fire marshal. He retired in mid-2010.

"Unfortunately, the disease got the best of him," said Vincent McManus, a fire marshal division supervisor. "Danny had a great love for the job and came to work every day he possibly could. He truly cared about fire safety and people in general."

Markham joined the Roosevelt Fire Department in 1982 and rose through the ranks, becoming a second assistant chief in 1990 and chief in 1992, at age 31. He would be elected chief two more times.

Markham was also a talented musician on the piano and alto saxophone, according to his family.

He was divorced. Survivors include a daughter, Karyn Olivia Franklin, of Amityville; his mother, Hazel, of Hempstead; a brother, Luis, of Columbus, Ohio; and three other sisters, Ruth Barton, of Covington, Ga., Ana Barrett, of New Britain, Conn., and Maria Markham Thompson, of Baltimore.

Viewing will be 5 to 7 p.m. today, with a service immediately following at the Mount Sinai Baptist Church in Roosevelt. At 11:30 a.m. tomorrow, the burial procession will leave the John N. Moore Funeral Home in Roosevelt for Greenfield Cemetery in Uniondale.

The family asks that donations be made to the Roosevelt Fire District at 56 W. Centennial Ave., Roosevelt, NY 11575, or the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, 733 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017.