Howard Rayon, a firefighter’s firefighter, lost his battle with cancer on October 18. I first met Howard when we were charter members of the Laguna Hot Shots on the Cleveland National Forest in southern California in 1974. He moved from Hot Shots to engines, and then to the Santee Fire Department east of San Diego in 1977 working his way up to Deputy Chief where he is still shown on their web site in an old photo. He was a Safety Officer on one of the California Type 1 Incident Management Teams.

In his spare time he became a lawyer and specialized in labor law and firefighter litigation and also became well known around the state for the fire courses he instructed. The California State Firefighters’ Association annual conference earlier this year was named in his honor.  Howard retired from Santee FD in 2006.

Howard was a true professional, and everyone around him benefited from his knowledge and devotion to the fire service. He will be missed.

When the details for the final services have been worked out I will post them here.

UPDATE on October 31:

Here is a video that T. Staffel told us about. It was filmed at a “celebration of Howard’s life” at the Irish Pub in La Mesa, Calif. It includes playing of the pipes and some comments by those in attendance.

(VIDEO NO LONGER AVAILABLE)