Bandera County’s volunteer fire marshal set to retire

A man of action — except when it comes to “honey-dos” — Ralph Dresser didn’t kick back in a recliner with a TV remote upon retiring from the Air Force as a full colonel in 1982. Instead, the pilot who flew 750 combat missions in Vietnam began working with the Red Cross and then as an EMT before leading the Medina Lake Volunteer Fire Department for nine years.

The pace of his “retirement” really picked up in 1997 when Dresser became Bandera County fire marshal. He added the duties of emergency management coordinator in 2002.

“It’s a hobby for me to stay involved, to be responsible, to have something to get up for in the morning,” said Dresser, 79. “That’s what life’s about, isn’t it?”

When floods hit, he mans the emergency operations center into the night, coordinating deputies, road crews and firefighters with military precision. When smoke darkens the horizon, Dresser’s 270-pound silhouette is likely to appear there, too, no matter what the hour.

“He’s always been like that,” said Dolly Dresser who, after 57 years of marriage, doesn’t fuss.

“He wouldn’t be happy if he was not out doing things like this, so what good would it be to have someone around who’s not a happy person?” she said.

They met when she was 16 and he was a Texas A&M freshman.

Ralph was sent on the first of many Air Force assignments just days after they wed in 1952. They went together, whenever possible. He flew fighter jets in Vietnam and then oversaw the Agent Orange defoliant program there. Dolly took the lead in raising four daughters.

“When I volunteered to go back to Vietnam the second time, she had enough of me,” Ralph recalled with a chuckle. “Fortunately, when I went back the third time, they sent me, so I didn’t have a choice.”

Dresser never took payment for being emergency management coordinator or fire marshal, saving the county roughly $400,000.

The county’s 911 coordinator, Carey Reed, received a stipend to take on emergency coordinator duties as of Oct. 1.

On Thursday, the county commissioners voted to hire retired Lackland AFB Fire Chief John Stith as county fire marshal, effective Dec. 10, and pay him $33,500 annually.

“It speaks for what he’s been doing that we have to have two people fill the gap when he leaves,” County Judge Richard Evans said of Dresser. “He cares a lot about where he lives, obviously.”

Dresser now faces the daunting prospect of life without sirens but with uninterrupted slumber when he retires, again, on Dec. 15. Ever the warrior, he’s staying strong despite the prospect of taking off his badge, ditching his radio and putting up his size-14 feet — sans black boots.

“This will be the first time in more than 60 years that I won’t be in a uniform,” he said, harkening to his days as an Eagle Scout in San Antonio. “I may join the Salvation Army.”

Dolly Dresser thinks Ralph’s latest retirement may be the real deal.

“I just hope he can find something that will keep him happy and keep his mind busy,” she said. “He doesn’t like to do honey-dos, I’ll tell you that.”
By Zeke MacCormack in The San Antonio Express-News