Remembering Rotarian Graham Pask

A tribute to Graham Pask

We lost one of our wonderful members on Thursday March 21st.  Graham Pask died in his sleep.  His funeral service was a tribute to an amazing family man and community leader. Over 300 friends, family members, and co-workers attended St. Timothy’s Catholic Church on Kennedy Way in Morro Bay.

At our Rotary meeting March 26th several members expressed fond memories of Graham.

Recently retired Morro Bay Fire Chief Mike Pond said that Graham was a fire fighter reserve member for 17 years.  He often thought there was a zip line straight from Graham’s house in North Morro Bay on Nutmeg to the driver’s seat of the fire engine at Station One on Harbor Street.  As soon as the tones sounded, Graham was on his way to help.

Current Fire Chief Steve Knuckles said that Graham was the liaison to the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation for the past 17 years.   He spent a lot of time going to schools, educating children and helping with foundation activities.  Graham also had a very busy full-time job with Symantec, which took a lot of time and effort.   To his three children, he was the very best father any child could have. 

Dan Costley reminisced about the incident when his friend, Linda, asked Graham to help with her cat. Without a moment’s hesitation, he figured out how to get her cat out of a tree. 

Bill Peirce lived a half a block from Graham and watched for him to go by at Mach 2 whenever the scanner lit up with a fire or rescue call.  Bill bought a lot of cookies from Graham’s kids as they raised money for community events.  He will be missed by many, many people.

Former Fire Chief Jeff Jones hired Graham in 1994 as a reserve fire fighter for about $5 per hour.  Morro Bay has two fire stations, but fire fighters always felt Fire Station Number Three was Graham’s house on Nutmeg.  Graham always backed his car into his driveway to shave seconds off his response time to Fire Station Number One.  Jeff’s daughters always babysat Graham’s kids and are friends to this day.  Of course, his children’s activities continue the tradition of giving back to their community.  His son, Austin, just completed a service project to install a new entry sign for the fire department.  

Meredith Fennacy received a Facebook posting from a total stranger in Hawaii who saw the obituary on her site and wanted to comment that Graham was his second father.

Stanley Craig is also a reserve fire fighter and said that it takes thousands of hours of commitment to serve as a reserve to the city, and Graham made a huge contribution to all of us.

John Weiss noted that Graham’s daughter, Courtney, was a member of the high school interact club and also went to RYLA.  The tradition of service certainly continues with the children.

Steve Knuckles thanked us for offering to help with Graham’s service, as his fire fighters are pretty “tapped out” from the pain of losing Graham and preparing for his funeral. John and Meredith Fennacy lead preparations and food following the service at the fire department. What a wonderful celebration of the life of fellow Rotarian Graham Pask!