Published on 4/18/2007 in TheDay.com
TheDay.com Region News

Some would call Arthur “Skip” Beebe an institution around the Old Lyme Fire Department, but he'd rather be called one of the guys. For him, it's all about giving back to his community, doing what he enjoys.

Beebe has served 39 years on the OLFD, 30 of them as a line or executive officer. This includes being fire chief from 1984 to 1986. He recently stepped down as president after nine years, and still serves on some committees.

Beebe, owner of Hudson Sullivan Homes in Old Lyme, has been honored by Customized Structures, Inc., a New Hampshire modular-home manufacturer, as the first winner of its Breaking Ground Award. It is given to modular builders for their contributions to their communities.

He didn't bother filling out the contest paper work last year. But a salesman he works with did. First came the phone call that he'd won, hands down. Next came a plaque, photos and some nice tools as a prize. Then it sunk in.

“I wasn't out looking for anything,” Beebe said. “I do it because I want to.”

Beebe is as modest of his own accomplishments as he is proud of the town's all-volunteer fire department. Roughly 100 men and women are volunteers, 45 to 50 of these are actives, he said. The force has responded to about 300 calls in the past year.

“People unfortunately don't quite understand the camaraderie, the brotherhood of the fire service. It is different than any other agency anywhere,” he said. “If I'm going in a burning building with you, we have to depend on each other to get back out. What we do for patients in car accidents, and the civic duties we do. We're here 24/7, and 365 days a year.”

Affordable housing is a challenge, he says, for volunteers who want to live in Old Lyme as well as protect the community. The tax-abatement incentive he worked to get helps. Beebe also has been involved in at least three affordable-housing projects for residents of Lyme and Old Lyme.

Fire has been a shaping force in Beebe's life.

“When I was 6 weeks old, the house I lived in, in Pleasure Beach burned down, and I barely made it out alive,” he said. “I was dropped down from the second story into somebody's arms. That's always been in the back of my mind.”

He moved to Old Lyme at age 6. “I remember sitting in Center School, watching middle school being built.” 

Working in sales, he started doing his own home renovations and additions for a growing family of three daughters. The first, Suzanne, was born three weeks after the Ferry Tavern fire on Ferry Road in 1971. Beebe started doing roofing.

“My first job was putting on the front porch decking on the old rectory of the Christ the King Church,” he said.

The marriage to his first wife, Catherine, ended, but the two remain friends. Their daughters grew up. Suzanne lives in Clinton, Judith in Salem and Christine in Old Lyme. After Beebe married his current wife, Nancy, the fire department continued to be a constant in his life, as did music.

Beebe was instrumental as a teenager in starting the first boys glee club in Old Lyme in 25 years. He calls himself a “folky,” into folk music.

“I started playing guitar in Christ the King Church in the late 1980s, probably a bit to show off,” he admitted. “Then I realized there was more to what we were doing than just playing a guitar.”

Beebe became a Catholic in 1991. He got busy with the modular home business. He stopped by St. Mark's Church in Westbrook and soon was singing there. This led to performing for Pope John Paul in Rome in 2001, when a parish priest believed the group deserved to be heard.

The 26-member choir sang their way across Italy in 10 days, including Milan, Florence, the Cathedral of St. Francis in Assisi and a Mass in the Vatican. The Americans were the only choir in a crowd of 25,000 that day.

“This nun came down and pointed to four of us guys to go up and do the response for the Holy Father as he comes in,” Beebe said. The quartet had to remain within 150 feet of the pontiff while he blessed marriages.

“It was an absolute journey of a lifetime,” Beebe said. “On a scale of 1 to 10, it was about a hundred. Nancy and I got to have a honeymoon, too.” 

There's probably never a slow time for Beebe, between his business, the fire department, church and family. But he's doing what he enjoys.

“Everything that I do outside of work is not for me, it's for God. That's what we're supposed to do, to give back to our community: time, talent and treasure.”

Suzanne Thompson

Times Staff Writer