Volunteer Firefighter Robert Watts Remembered as "Always Faithful"

To know dedication to one's community is to know Robert Watts.

That's how the fallen Windsor volunteer firefighter was remembered Saturday during funeral services at Sage Park Middle School.

"He died doing what he loved," said James Sarles, a family friend who delivered Watts' eulogy to the crowd of over 300 that filled the Sage Park auditorium, most dressed in formal firefighter blues. "He loved it with his whole heart."

Watts, 50, at the Windsor Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center on Poquonock Avenue. Emergency workers  transported Watts to St. Francis Hospital in Hartford where he died.

Watts' love for firefighting, commitment to the Windsor Center Fire Company and respect from firefighters from throughout the region rang loud and clear in the words of friends and colleagues who spoke of his life.

Sarles, a fellow fireighter who fought blazes alongside some of Watts' relatives in Manchester, recounted casual conversations with Watts in which he was subjected to hearing about everything the department was dealing with, at length.

"Bob's greatest love was here in Windsor: the Windsor Fire Company," Sarles said.

Perhaps nothing better exemplifies the person Robert Watts was than "Semper Fi," Sarles explained. He recalled who experienced the tragic nature of fire early in his life.

Watts' family home in Manchester was destroyed in a fire when he was young, leaving his family "in the street."  Sarles said he was the one who gave Watts his first piece of fire-fighting equipment — a plastic, red helmet that read "The Hartford Junior Fire Marshal."

Sarles said firefighters arrived at Watts' school the day after his family's home burned. There was a fear  that talking about the fire would negatively effect Watts, but "that was the beginning," he said.

The young "Bobby" Watts eventually took to fire safety, becoming a junior member of Manchester's 8th District Utilities Unit in 1977.  Watts took that calling to serve to the next level years later when he joined the Marine Corps and "Semper Fi" became his creed.

Watts would come to do nothing less than serve "Always Faithful" as the creed translates, Sarles said. "He left for the Marines as Bobby and returned as a fully-grown Bob... always faithful."

The highest compliment a firefighter can receive is the firefighter's creed, said E.J. Sweeney, the Assistant Pastor of Emanuel Lutheran Church in Hartford who officiated the service. That creed is to "never leave a brother or sister behind."

According to Sweeney, those were the words used to describe Watts following battles with structure fires, during which he refused to let down his colleagues who were, at times, fatigued in service.

Watts' service to his colleagues and fire company was unwavering. Sarles remembered Watts as unselfish, always giving and always helping, right up until the day he died.

Windsor Fire Chief Bill Lewis said that a company member was walking the halls of the fire house the night Watts died and noticed the company's sign-up sheet for their annual easter flower sale. Watts' name was at the top.

"He was always first to volunteer," Lewis said, a statement echoed by Sweeney who told of Watts serving as the face of the company's annual Christmas tree sales, always scrambling to take on more shifts in front of the public safety complex where he would spend hours upon hours raising funds with his two children, Allen, 17, and Christina, 15.

Watts' greatest achievement, said Sarles, was raising his two children, whose mother died in 2009. "He had a glean in his eye and an extra spring in his step," whenever he was with them, added Sweeney.

The family was presented the American Flag that draped Watts' coffin following a Marine's salute and the playing of "Taps."

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal and Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman were among the dignitaries who joined representatives from about two dozen fire companies that traveled from as far as Massachusetts to show their support to the Watts family and .

Watts is the first Windsor firefighter to lose his life on the job since 1978. He first joined the Windsor Volunteer Fire Department in 2003 and completed his training in 2006.

"We lost a good one," said Chief Lewis. "Bob has anwered his final alarm... We must not say 'Goodbye,' but 'See you later, brother.'"