Nantucket Fire Chief Steve Murphy announced Monday that he will be retiring on Sept. 1 after 35 years on the job.
Murphy, an island native, joined the Nantucket Memorial Airport fueling and firefighting team right out of high school in 1987, and four years later later joined the Nantucket Fire Department as a full time firefighter/EMT. He never imagined that he would rise to to become chief of the department, a post he has held for the last five years.
But the time has come, Murphy said, to turn the page and move on from the career that has defined his life.
“I’m looking forward to it, just to be able to have some time off and see what comes,” Murphy told the Current. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I’m not going to stop working. I’m going to enjoy some time with my wife and see where the road leads. But it’s time for me to leave and reaching this point, it’s something I’ve been looking forward to for awhile, and it’s finally coming. Is there some side of me that’s sad? Absolutely. I love the work. I loved being a paramedic, EMT and a firefighter.”
Murphy said he is proud of where he’s leaving the department, as well as the men and women of NFD who will continue to serve the island community into the future under new leadership.
“We’ve increased staffing levels, added positions, and we’ve brought ALS (Advanced Life Support) into the department and given people the ability to extend their education and pay grade through that,” Murphy said. “We’ve made a lot of changes for the good. I’m leaving the department to the people who love the job hopefully as much as I do and can steward it forward.”
