Fort Worth Fire Department spokesman Kent Worley retiring

A routine question on medical forms gives Lt. Kent Worley pause every time: “Occupation.”

“I don’t know how many times I’ve sat there and looked at the line, trying to figure out what I’m going to put,” Worley said. “I feel very strange putting down the word firefighter. It just doesn’t look right.”

Though he has worked 32 years with the Fort Worth Fire Department, only four of them have been spent battling fires. The vast majority of Worley’s career has been a mixture of behind-the-scenes work in fire management and administration and the very public role as the department’s official spokesman for the last 20 years.

“I’ve never seen a person that’s not only as good as Kent, but that can do this job day in and day out, 24/7, for as long as he had without burning out,” former Fire Chief Larry McMillen said. “As far back as I can remember, Kent Worley was always at the scene of all major incidents in Fort Worth that involved the Fire Department.”

In addition, for 25 years Worley has served on many state committees in connection with the Texas Commission on Fire Protection, which sets state fire service standards and provides education to fire service personnel. He was appointed a commissioner in 2002 and concluded his last term with the agency this year.

“What was most impressive to me about Kent was that he looked after every firefighter in the state of Texas, not just paid firefighters, or volunteers, or big-city firefighters,” said Pat McAuliff, who served several years with Worley on a commission committee.

Worley, who officially retires Dec. 31 but spent his last day at work Nov. 20, said it’s time to focus on his family.

“I’m bringing this book to a close and now it’s time to do Part 2,” said Worley, 57.

Getting started
With a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of Texas at Arlington, Worley started out as a sales representative for a local residential and commercial lighting firm.

“It just wasn’t satisfying,” Worley said.

He remembered how a colleague’s husband frequently boasted about his career as a Fort Worth firefighter.

“The pride that he had was obvious and it was like, ‘That is the feeling I want to have about a job,’?” Worley said.

When he joined the department, his newlywed wife, Charlene, was his biggest supporter.

“My very first day to report to work at a fire hall was Christmas morning of ’77, which was also our very first Christmas together as man and wife,” Worley said. “But it was not an issue because she knew this was a major thing for us. She’s been my rock ever since.”

But his time on a firetruck would be limited. After four years in the field, Worley was assigned the time-consuming task of editing raw video of a two-day training course. Soon more projects came and he was permanently moved to the training academy to team with up with the Police Department’s video unit. Worley welcomed the move.

“I’m a little different. I really enjoyed being at the station, but I always thought it was weird to sit around waiting for somebody to have a problem,” he said.

In the years that followed, he took various other roles, including business manager, master instructor and legislative liaison. In 1989, he became the department’s public information officer.

“I told him tongue in cheek at one point that his No. 1 job was to always make the chief look good,” McMillen said. “He never let me down.”

Fire Department spokesman
Longtime WFAA/Channel 8 reporter Jim Douglas describes Worley as a calming and accommodating public information officer who understands what reporters need. He said photographers have long praised Worley for getting them close to the action, yet keeping them safe. Douglas joked that “for all the years I’ve put him on Channel 8, he never once complained about his hair blowing in the wind.”

“Occasionally, for whatever reason, a large government bureaucracy matches an employee’s job perfectly with his or her skills and personality. This happened with Kent,” Douglas said.

During his years as spokesman, Worley has been at the forefront of a number of nationally watched events, including the deaths of three firefighters in February 1999 as they battled a Lake Worth church fire.

“That’s probably the hardest one, because I knew two of the three victims and worked with them as firefighters,” Worley said.

For his handling of the tragedy, he was recognized the next year as Firefighter of the Year and received a Distinguished Service Award. But it’s not just the high-profile fires or disasters that take their toll.

He remembers breaking down in front of a reporter in 1991 as he recounted the details of a house fire that had killed three young children. It would be first of three fire fatalities involving children that year.

“Obviously I’m not the one that pulls the individuals out, but because of my role .?.?. I go to all fire fatalities,” Worley said. “It doesn’t matter to me if it’s north side, south side, east side, west side.? .?.?.? I’ve responded to them. That’s the hard part, especially if it’s children.”

Less-visible accomplishments
For all his public exposure, Worley is most proud of his less visible contributions. In 1984, he began what would become a long-term relationship with the Texas Commission on Fire Protection when a deputy chief asked him to join him at a committee meeting.

“He said, ‘Why don’t you go along with me — that way you can be my alternate if I can’t make a meeting?’ We went to the first meeting together and guess who made all the meetings after that?” Worley said.

Soon, Worley volunteered to attend the commission’s meetings in Austin to help the department keep abreast of issues. He was asked to serve on various committees and was ultimately appointed a commissioner by Gov. Rick Perry. Part of his work was an 18-year commitment to a committee created in 1989 to develop curriculum and testing for professional firefighters.

“I am one of the co-authors of the 468-hour school that every professional firefighter has to attend in the state of Texas to be certified,” Worley said. “We literally started from scratch and wrote the book.”

McAuliff said Worley’s contributions to the committee over the years were vital.

“When others were more anxious to just get something down on paper and push it through, Kent was the one who threw the brakes on and questioned and scrutinized,” McAuliff said.

Worley said his decision to leave it all behind is bittersweet. For 20 years, he’s been on call for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, unless he was on vacation or in Austin. He’s been called away from holiday meals and the opening credits of movies. He’s missed recitals of his daughters, Beth and Samantha, now ages 27 and 23, respectively.

“My family has never, ever once said anything negative about it. It was always ‘OK, Dad. See you. Be careful,’?” Worley said. “It’s time for me to give back to them.”
By Deanna Boyd in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram