George Conklin, Longtime Fire Department Veteran, Dead at 90

Memorial services were held Wednesday for George Conklin Sr., a longtime veteran of the Wyckoff Fire Department who passed away at his home after a brief illness last Friday.

He was 90 years old.

Conklin, a 56-year member of Wyckoff Fire Department Community Engine Company #2, was interred at St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Hackensack after a funeral mass at The Church of the Nativity in Midland Park.

A Wyckoff fire engine crew accompanied the service in Hackensack, and city firefighters there turned out along with township volunteers to pay their respects, Fire Chief Lou Graglia said.

“I knew him when I first joined, he was a member for quite a while before me,” Graglia said. “He did a lot for the fire department.”

In addition to more than a half century as a volunteer fireman, Conklin was also active in the Knights of Columbus, a lifelong member of the New Jersey State Fireman’s Association, and president of the Wyckoff Fire Department Association from 1991-2002, according to an obituary posted by Vander Plaat Funeral Home.

Conklin, who was born in Midland Park, was a sheet metal mechanic for Derrick’s Sheet Metal in Totowa before his retirement, the obituary said.

He is survived by his six children, 12 grandchildren and nine great-grandchidlren. His wife, Lee, passed away in 2010.

Though Conklin relocated from the township to Queensbury, NY, in 2007, the passing of someone whose years of service have been matched by few remains a loss for the department, Graglia said.

“They’re few and far between. It’s kind of an anomaly, the guys that are on this long,” he said. “It’s a loss. Even though he wasn’t an active member, it’s still a brotherhood and it’s tough to lose one of the brothers.”