Wayne Peplow (May 26, 2003)

Wayne's son Andy ("Andy Peplow" <peplow@tamu.edu>) has this link in memory of his father.
http://www.thepeplows.com/wayne.htm

Dunlap's respected fire chief dies

Wayne Peplow, 59, oversaw second station, designed equipment

May 26, 2003

By SARAH OKESON
of the Journal Star

DUNLAP - Just days after the Dunlap Fire Department wore their new dress uniforms for the funeral of firefighter Jim Mulay, they're getting ready to wear them again.

Wayne Peplow, 59, the fire chief for 21 years, died just before 8 a.m. Sunday at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, about three weeks after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

"We're really struggling here," said Deputy Chief John Doering. "Two weeks ago, we had 40 volunteers. Now we have 38."

During his decades as chief, Peplow oversaw building a second fire station, added three pieces of equipment to the department, including one that he designed, and helped lower Dunlap's fire protection rating, which insurance companies use when setting rates for homeowners insurance.

"He lowered their rating significantly which has an impact on everybody's insurance rates," said Germantown Hills Fire Chief Chip Wilmot.

Peplow grew up in West Peoria and joined the fire department there in 1965. He even convinced his father to join the fire department.

He joined the Dunlap Fire Department in 1975, shortly after he and his wife, Jane, built the home where they would raise their three children.

Peplow worked at Caterpillar Inc. for 37 years. After he retired, he worked part-time as a fire investigator.

"He knew about plumbing and he knew about wiring," said Peplow's youngest son, Andy. "He knew how houses were built because he watched his dad build houses. Putting all those things together, he found fire investigation a lot of fun, and he was very good at it."

The older Peplow struggled for much of his life with Crohn's disease, which affects the small intestine and can cause abdominal pain, bleeding and weight loss.

"He was a tough guy," Andy Peplow said. "He didn't like to admit he was weak. Sometimes he could be hurting, but he wouldn't admit it."

Peplow's appetite was legendary.

"He could outeat anybody," Andy Peplow said. "It was kind of a family joke. With the surgeries, they cut out more and more intestine because it was diseased. The only way to compensate for that was to eat. Going out to eat pizza on Sunday nights was a family tradition. One pizza was for my mother and brother and sister and me, and one pizza was for him. Sometimes he would go into our pizza."

Despite problems with his health, Peplow took his children on fishing trips and was active in the Boy Scouts.

The family also stressed education. The oldest daughter, Julie, 35, has an MBA. Doug, 33, has a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering. Andy, 30, is finishing up his doctorate in genetics.

"Both my parents decided early on that we would go to college," Doug Peplow said. "We didn't know anything else."

Peplow used the same financial acumen with the fire department that he and his wife used to put three children through college. The mortgage on the new fire station that was built in 1995 has been paid off.

"Wayne was pretty tight with the buck," Doering said.

Peplow was too ill last week to attend the visitation of Mulay, the Peoria County sheriff's deputy killed in an auto accident while on duty last week, so the department came to his home, marching in their new uniforms by Peplow's house.

"It was pretty powerful," Doug Peplow said. "I don't think anybody in the family can tell the story without crying. He didn't say much, but you could tell it touched him."