A Christmas lesson for all, from a dedicated former HHI fire chief | Opinion
Christmas lights that swirl around a Hilton Head Island fire station hold a special meaning for old-timers.
And, in a sad way, they help tell a story about the ills of human nature — and the will of an old fire chief to overcome that with joy.
The magical scene at Station No. 3 on William Hilton Parkway has become a Christmas attraction, with cars circling it and people leaving toys they hope will spread joy to others. It’s akin to the grand old light show on Dove Street, and another from the old days when the late Dorothy Young brought dreams to life in her yard on Gum Tree Road.
But the fire station display is a special reminder of Christmases past on Hilton Head when Dave MacLellan filled his yard at 3 Myrtle Lane with 101 characters he painted on plywood, cut out and pinned to the ground with golf club shafts. He would be thrilled with today’s fire station decorations.
“People still tell me, ‘Your dad was the one with the yard,’ ” said his daughter, Kathy MacLellan Perry, a third-grade teacher at Hilton Head Elementary School and wife of Mayor Alan Perry.
“I’m still hearing stories from people who were walking around in our yard” decades ago when she was a child, enamored with the lighted images of Snoopy, Bugs Bunny, the Road Runner, Kermit, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and every year more puppies from the 101 Dalmatians.
MacLellan was Hilton Head’s first paid fire chief, in 1973, and chief of the Town of Hilton Head Island’s Fire and Rescue Division when it was formed by the merger of two departments in 1993.
He and his wife, JoAnne, moved to the island in 1968, with two little girls in tow, after JoAnne said to her husband on a family vacation, “I wish we could live here.”
When she said it twice, her husband listened. They put money down on a lot and soon moved.
He volunteered with the Sea Pines Forest Beach Fire Department, which had one pumper when he was named chief.
MacLellan was a force. He pushed for better training, better equipment, better laws, better pay, better building codes, better community involvement and public education on fire safety, better communications, and better fire insurance rates for residents.
He convinced locals that Hilton Head could have a 911 service, and it became the second or third community in the state to have it.
MacLellan chaired the state fire commission for four years, and was inducted into the state firefighters hall of fame.
Childhood was not a breeze for MacLellan in Cleveland, Ohio. He said he left high school early to help support his family. But as an adult, he spread glee, playing Santa Claus around town, and the fire department hosted an annual 10-cent Carnival for island children.
He ran the junior golf program, making clubs for kids who couldn’t afford them, and was an announcer at the 18th green for 18 years during the Heritage pro golf tournament in Sea Pines.
But at heart, MacLellan was an artist. He kept a drawing board in the dining room, and he was encouraged by islander Coby Whitmore, a national hall of fame illustrator who became a close friend.
MacLellan retired in 1996 and soon he and JoAnne took to the road as RVers. For 10 years they crisscrossed the country with no agenda except to see daughter Debra, an environmental toxicologist in Seattle, and Kathy back east.
The Christmas characters went to Kathy’s house in Snellville, Georgia, where she put them in the yard to the delight of neighbors. Until deep in one night when two boys destroyed all the smiling characters with hockey sticks.
The lights went dark. But not for MacLellan. He does chalk art now in Casa Grande, Ariz. where he and JoAnne finally put down anchor. And at 83, he somehow bends those old knees to draw a 45-foot Christmas tree with hundreds of colored lights brightening the roadway at a big intersection.
The chief taught us that you can put out a fire, but you can’t snuff out the spirit of Christmas.