By JOSEPH KELLARD
"Fred would lay down the law on how we were to carry out our duties as company officers," former Chief Bob Jacoby said in his eulogy for Nickees at his funeral service at Towers Funeral Home in Oceanside last week. "...Let us always remember the knowledge he dispensed to us, and let us never forget the man who was 'Mother' to all us young guys."
Nickees signed on with the OFD in 1927, joining the Hose Co. 1 firehouse on Evergreen Avenue. Making his way up the ranks, he was elected captain in 1937 and chief of the department in 1954. In more recent years, at the OFD's annual company elections, the department's senior member assumed the task of swearing in incoming officers and handing out badges of rank.
Jim Garvey, captain of Hose Co. 1 in 1978 and among the firefighters Nickees swore through his various ranks, remembered him as a man of priorities. "He had no qualms about telling you how to do the job right," Garvey said in explaining how Nickees earned his nickname. "He congratulated you when you did the right thing, but he also actually scolded you when you didn't."
Yet another side of the disciplinarian was his love of kicking back and relaxing with a cocktail, his favorites being a sidecar and a Manhattan, and regaling his fellow firefighters with stories of blazes he battled in decades past.
"Fred introduced me to the perfect Rob Roy," Garvey laughed. "He just loved life and loved the department."
Nickees was born on Dec. 29, 1908, at Jamaica Hospital, and during his youth lived in various neighboring towns, including Lynbrook, East Rockaway and Baldwin. He enlisted in the Army in 1943 and became a signal caller who saw action in the Rhineland during World War II. He married in 1948, and he and his wife, Charlotte, moved to Oceanside. The couple, who had no children, traveled yearly and extensively, from Alaska to Hawaii to Europe. Nickees worked as a switchboard installer for Western Electric his entire career.
"He had strong convictions of his own, but he was very easy to get along with," Charlotte said.
Garvey characterized Nickees as "extremely loyal," recalling how he took up golf with his fellow firefighter, Hal Brunger, but gave it up after Brunger died, since being on the course without his buddy would never be the same.
In addition to golf, Nickees enjoyed hunting, and carved his own decoy ducks. He collected vintage coins, and was an active member of the Masons at the Spartan Lodge in Baldwin. But firefighting was always his first love.
Among the younger firefighters, Capt. John Madden knew Nickees as a friend to everybody. "It didn't matter that when I was some 19-year-old probationary officer, this firefighter who had seen everything still treated you as a fellow member," Madden said.
What Madden will remember most about Nickees, however, is his dedicated service. "To be in the service for 78 years, when I don't know if I'll even live that long, is incredible," he said.
Up until his final year, when his health began to decline, Nickees famously lent his knowledge and guidance to fellow OFD fighters, particularly to chiefs, and worked behind the scenes on committees and other department functions. "He was a gentleman who provided exemplary leadership," Chief Sean Lynch said, "and in whatever way, shape or form he could help out, he would."
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