Longtime St. Tammany Parish, AL, Fire Chief Mourned

Dec. 23—Larry Hess, a well-known St. Tammany Parish firefighter who spent a decade at the helm of the Slidell-area fire department, died Saturday. He was 78.

Hess, who was beloved in St. Tammany's tightknit firefighting community, had battled cancer, his family said.

"He was a man that never met a stranger, and he always worked to make everybody happy. Everybody liked him," said Scott Hess, one of two sons. "He would literally give you the shirt off his back."

Hess became chief of the St. Tammany Fire District No. 1, based in Slidell but with a coverage area across much of eastern St. Tammany, in 2003. He led the department until his retirement in 2013.

"He was a great guy," said current St. Tammany Fire District No. 1 Chief Chris Kaufmann, who worked as the second in command under Hess. "He had a great sense of humor. He was a fun guy to work with."

"He was an institution," added James Hartman, who worked with Hess as the district's public information spokesperson. "Larry always, always put public safety first."

In a 2013 letter to the fire district's board of commissioners announcing his retirement, Hess noted that during his tenure he helped get the department on firm financial ground, including a referendum in which voters agreed to a parcel fee. The department flourished while staying within its budget, the letter said.

Noting the danger inherent to putting out fires, Hess wrote that he was thankful to God that he had not been injured or killed, as 13 of his fellow firefighters had been over the course of his career.

Kaufmann said that the parcel fee, which came in the years after Hurricane Katrina waylaid the district's tax base, helped keep the department solvent.

Prior to taking the chief's job, Hess had been St. Tammany Parish's fire superintendent under former Parish President Kevin Davis. In that role he provided a liaison between the various fire districts and parish government, Kaufmann said.

Scott Hess said his father's leadership of the department in Slidell capped a career that began decades earlier in the Midwest.

A native of Joliet, Illinois, Hess worked at several different fire departments in Indiana and Illinois, including Chicago. After that, Hess landed in Chalmette, where he oversaw the hazardous materials and firefighting response teams at the ExxonMobil refinery. He held that post for 20 years before moving into public service in St. Tammany, Scott Hess said.

Scott Hess also worked for a period for St. Tammany Fire District No. 1, and said he was "lucky" to have been able to work with his father for several years there.

Scott Hess said his father and mother, Janice Hess, met in Chicago.

"He proposed to her on their second date — at a Cubs game," Scott Hess said with a chuckle.

Scott Hess joked that his mother made his father sweat it out for a while before accepting his proposal. The were married 57 years.

Larry Hess is survived by Janice Hess and Scott Hess, as well as another son, Mickey Hess.

Funeral arrangements had not been settled Monday, but Scott Hess said a public service will be held sometime during the first week of January in the Northshore Harbor Center in Slidell.

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