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Retired Springfield Fire Chief Receives Statewide Award

Missouri State University

When he was 21-years-old, former Springfield Fire Chief David Hall, saw his best friend’s house burn to the ground.  He felt helpless so he signed up as a volunteer firefighter with the Mountain Grove Fire Department.

Many years and a rewarding career in firefighting later, Hall has been awarded the Missouri Department of Public Safety’s Hall of Fame Award during a ceremony in Jefferson City Tuesday morning.

While working as a volunteer in Mountain Grove, a training officer there told him he should consider working as a fireman full time.  So, he moved to Springfield and got a job with the Logan Rogersville Fire Protection District.  He eventually was hired by the Springfield Fire Department where he worked for 28 years .  He was named chief in 2009.

"Every step of the way I always thought, 'this is the best job ever,' and then you go to the next one because you want to have more of an ability to impact, to make an impact, and then that becomes that same way, so it really was all the way through my career, it was just quite enjoyable," he said.

Hall was nominated for the Hall of Fame Award by current Springfield Fire Chief David Pennington, who Hall worked with before he retired in early 2017.

"It's always an honor to get nominated and even more so whenever you're selected because there's always such a good candidate pool," he said.

As he prepared to receive the award from Missouri Governor Mike Parson at the state capitol , he thought of all of those who may have no idea that the actions they once took led Hall to where he is today.  He points to those who allowed him to get free fire training from the University of Missouri, Pell Grants he received that allowed him to go to college as well as officials at Missouri State University, where he received a bachelor’s and master’s degree, who gave him scholarships.

"All of those kind of things over my career have made a difference in allowing me to really be able to develop the skills, and I'm appreciative of that," he said.

Hall is currently the emergency preparedness manager at Missouri State University.

The award he received is presented each year to a senior or retired public safety professional in recognition of an exemplary career of service to the state of Missouri, according to the Missouri Department of Public Safety. 

Michele Skalicky has worked at KSMU since the station occupied the old white house at National and Grand. She enjoys working on both the announcing side and in news and has been the recipient of statewide and national awards for news reporting. She likes to tell stories that make a difference. Michele enjoys outdoor activities, including hiking, camping and leisurely kayaking.