New Ann Arbor, MI, Fire Station Named for First Female Firefighter

ANN ARBOR, MI — Mindy Kerr made history when she was hired as Ann Arbor’s first female firefighter.

That was July 1980 and she served for 25 years before retiring in 2005.

Now city officials have decided to name a new fire station in her honor.

City Administrator Milton Dohoney made the announcement at the City Council meeting Monday night, April 21.

“We believe since Mindy Kerr is still alive and still in the area that Fire Station 4 should be named for her,” he said. “Because you cannot thrive without recognizing that you’re standing on the shoulders of a pioneer.”

An eco-friendly Station 4 to be built off Huron Parkway and Platt Road on the city’s east side will have features like solar panels and geothermal heating and cooling, Dohoney said, saying city officials are ecstatic about that.

“But we’re also a little more ecstatic about the fact that after 40-some years, we’re finally going to have a fire station that is gender inclusive,” he said.

Construction of new $12.4M fire station in Ann Arbor set to go forward

He showed council an old black-and-white photo of Kerr on the job in the 1980s when she was in her 20s.

“This is Mindy Kerr,” he said. “This is the first woman that stepped forward to take the oath as an Ann Arbor firefighter.”

The photo was included in a 1985 Ann Arbor Observer article about Kerr with the subhead: “The department’s only woman takes her job very seriously.”

The Ann Arbor native explained in the article she had a bachelor’s degree in general studies from the University of Michigan and was working at the Commission on Professional and Hospital Activities before she started looking for a job that better suited her. When she spotted an ad for firefighters, she saw right away the hours — 24 on, 48 off — were perfect for her, she said, explaining she wanted a job that allowed her to take on management of her family’s horse farm just west of town and her boyfriend urged her to try for it.

Going through firefighter training was rigorous, but she was in good shape because of her work with horses, Kerr said in the article, which described her as standing “a sturdy five foot nine” and projecting physical strength.

She was at Station 3 on Jackson Avenue then and said she turned down an offer to have a partition to separate her from the men in the eight-bed sleeping quarters.

“It seemed silly,” she said.

For a decade after she started, Kerr was the only woman in the department, Dohoney said, saying she served at a time when the city’s philosophy and operations did not match.

“But she still kept coming,” he said.

A total of 22 women now have served in the Ann Arbor Fire Department, Dohoney said.

City Council voted in March to approve a $10.6 million construction contract and appropriate $12.4 million overall to go forward with the Station 4 project.

The new station is being designed to better accommodate firefighters of all gender identities, in addition to aligning with the city’s A2Zero sustainability goals.

Dohoney told council Monday night the city also is seeking $12 million for a new Station 3 and going after federal funding.

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