Donnie Braun, one of the founding members of the Cole County Fire Protection District, previously known as the Cole County Volunteer Fire Department, died Sunday.
He was 82.
Braun devoted his life to filling a previously unserved need in Cole County. In 1969, Cole County had no fire protection district. While those living in Jefferson City were covered, rural residents of the area were mostly on their own.
Seeing this need, Braun and a group of others formed the Cole County Volunteer Fire Department.
"When we started, we had one pumper truck," Braun said in a previous News Tribune story. "We covered 100 square miles back then, trained with Jefferson City firefighters, and donations had to be given to equip us."
Braun said the crew acquired a tanker truck after a few years.
The district now covers 220 square miles and not just in Cole County. The district serves areas in Cole, Osage and Miller counties with a total of eight stations and more than 70 members.
When the volunteer department officially became a protection district in 1993, the service gained funding from taxes.
In the early days, however, the service operated off of "tags." Once a year, residents would go to the fire station and purchase tags. Those tags paid for the services' operation and placed the resident under the protection of the department.
In a previous story, Braun recalled having to sell those memberships to keep the department afloat.
"At one point, we only had two or three hundred dollars in the bank, and we had to run eight or nine months with that," Braun said. "I put some money of my own in to keep gas in the truck."
Braun's devotion to the cause lasted his entire career. He worked for the department for 54 years, from its foundation as a volunteer department to its rebirth as a tax-funded entity.
He resigned from his position as chief in 2018, but that didn't stop him from serving his community. Instead, Braun joined the fire district's board of directors.
Deputy Fire Chief Steve Barnes said he worked with Braun for more than 40 years.
Barnes said Braun had a huge impact on the community.
"He touched a lot of people," Barnes said.
Barnes remembers spending a lot of time on fire scenes with Braun. He said there were a lot of good times.
"He was a super guy. A hard worker. He took care of a lot of firefighters for a long time," Barnes said.
According to previous reporting, Braun actually had two options for his career: a sheriff's deputy or a firefighter. It's clear which option he chose, and he wasn't the only one in his family to choose the firefighting life.
Braun's three sons, Steve, Gary and Alan, along with his grandsons Justin and Luke Braun, have all served as volunteers at the department.
Steve Braun died in 2014 after 32 years as a volunteer. Gary Braun is a lieutenant with 38 years of service. Alan Braun is a captain and training officer and has been with the department for 31 years. Justin Braun is also a captain and has served for 14 years.
Through them, Braun's legacy lives on. It survives through his family's continued service to the people of Cole County as firefighters. It also lives on through his businesses, run by his sons, Donnie Braun and Sons Auto Repair and Braun Storage.
CORRECTION: This article was edited Feb. 1, 2023 to indicate two grandsons of Donnie Braun are firefighters. They are Luke Braun and Justin Braun. The original version of this story omitted one of the grandsons.