By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
After a combined total of 23 years of service, Glasgow Fire Chief William Rock said he is currently finishing up the necessary paperwork to officially retire on Oct. 1 with the intent to move closer to his daughter in Louisville.
“I found out my daughter was pregnant during the first part of the year — she’s due Oct. 7,” Rock said. “This is my first grandchild, my grandson, so we sold our house and purchased a home in Bullitt County…so we can be closer to her and the grandbaby.”
“We always told our daughter wherever she went we would follow her and it just so happens it ends up being Louisville,” he added.
When all is said and done Rock will have served as the fire chief for three years, ten years as a firefighter, two years as a sergeant, roughly seven years as a lieutenant and six months as assistant fire chief with the Glasgow Fire Department.
Originally from Hart County, Rock’s journey to chief of the Glasgow Fire Department was anything but a straight line.
As a junior attending Hart County High School Rock enlisted — through the delayed entry program — with the U.S. Marine Corps. Upon graduation in 1987, and after training at Paris Island, he served overseas and in Operation Desert Storm before becoming a non-commissioned officer instructor.
“At that time the military was making cut backs and a lot of people were getting forced out,” Rock said. “I wasn’t getting forced out but I already had six years in so I thought ‘if I do another six that puts me at 12 and if I’m forced out at 12 years [then] I’m older and who knows what will happen.’ So, I was either going to go into being a drill instructor or I was going to get out and I chose to get out.”
Once out of the Marine Corps, Rock tried out for a position with the Kentucky State Police — a position he received. However, around the same time Rock married his wife Sharon Rock in October 1994 after dating for a year and, a couple years later, found out his wife was pregnant.
“I got on with KSP, I had my orientation, had my uniform, my books, and I found out my wife was pregnant and [KSP] said ‘We’ll try and get you back for the birth.’” Rock said. “Back then everybody went to Eastern Kentucky…I did my pros and cons and the cons were a whole lot more than the pros so I declined my position and that when I came and tried out here…and I’ve been here ever since.”
Rock closed on his house last week and his wife is up in Bullitt County with their new home — which, ironically, is only a few houses away from the Zoneton Fire Department.
His new job, as he said, will mostly consist of babysitting his grandson. Given this Rock mused that his retirement would be “bittersweet” as he would get to spend more time with his blood-family and drastically reduce time spent with his work-family and all the friends he has made in Glasgow. In fact, it is the people that Rock said he’ll miss most.
“You go through stages in this job,” Rock said. “When you’re young you really like fighting fire [then] you like wrecks because they’re technical and each one is different, but no doubt it’s the people. We’re such a tight knit group; we’re a family. I’m really going to miss this.”
“It’s been a lifelong dream,” Rock said. “It’s been great.”
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