Dash leaves his mark

Noblesville Fire, family remembers John Dashiell . . .

John Dashiell – “Dash” to his friends – was a Navy veteran who served on the Noblesville Fire Department from July 15, 1968 to June 29, 1998. He had his last Thanksgiving with his family in Omaha, Neb., went to the hospital on Nov. 24, and passed away Dec. 8, 2018. This reporter was fortunate enough to spend time talking to his wife, Melissa Dashiell, and several of the men who served with him in the fire department about the Dash’s life and his influence on the lives of others.

“We met on a blind a date in early 1970,” Melissa said. “My friend was having a little party. It was a little bitty party because the whole thing was to get us together. It was just six of us. I noticed John had a really neat car. He had a ’66 Chevelle, it had a 397, 4 on the floor, and he had great hair. I used to tell him, ‘You got a second date because you had a car and you had great hair.’”

Melissa and John married in 1971. They had two children, Abe and Karen. Abe Dashiell lives in Indiana and Karen Seymoure lives in Omaha, Neb. with her husband and a five-year-old son, Colin, who was adopted from China.

The Dashiells traveled to all 50 states as well as Canada and Mexico. Melissa told The Reporter she has a refrigerator magnet purchased from every state they saw together.

She speaks of John with a smile in her voice and often with laughter.

“He had all kinds of hobbies,” Melissa said. “He went from one to another. He grew gourds and painted them, he carved wood, he was a watercolor painter, he had a coin collection and he made jewelry from stones that he polished. You know those stone polishers that kids can get? He had four of them going at once – about drove me nuts! They had to do a different grit for each one. They went through coarse, then through finer and finer grits.”

John even panned for gold in White River.

“He built his own sluice,” Melissa said. “Anytime we were on a trip that the area had panning for gold, well, we had to go do that. He had so many interests.”

Both Melissa and members of the Noblesville Fire Department talked about John as a man who was always doing something with his hands – always building or fixing or improving things.

“He liked a lot of stuff, but it was always stuff he could do with his hands,” Melissa said. “He barely ever read. I read a lot. He’d ask me, ‘Are there any pictures in that book?’ I’d say, ‘Nope.’ And he’d say, ‘Well that’s a waste of time.’”

In John’s honor, we have included pictures with this article. You can find even more in the website version of this story.

“Most people would say he was shy and reserved,” Melissa said. “He loved to travel, but I did all the talking, so there you go. He let me be the outgoing one. He could sit back and watch or comment when he wanted to. He was always thinking, but rarely said what he was thinking. The guys from the fire department will say the same thing.”

The men from Noblesville Fire Department did indeed say that same.

“John’s father, Gilbert Dashiell, was Assistant Chief for the Noblesville Fire Department for 25 years, but they never worked together,” Assistant Chief Matt Mitchell told The Reporter. Gilbert Dashiell did spend time in the station with John after his retirement, however. “He and his dad could both be sitting there, and you might not hear 10 words out of them. They were both very quiet. Reserved.”

According to Fire Chief Greg Wyant, though quiet, Dash was exceptionally well-liked.

“The interesting thing about Dash is that if you went out and found every person that knew him and lined them up, I don’t think anyone would say anything bad about him,” Wyant said.

Assistant Chief Mitchell agreed.

“Everybody says this, and it’s a cliché, but in this case, I think it’s true: I don’t think Dash had a single enemy,” Mitchell said. “Everybody liked Dash. That’s pretty rare. When somebody passes away, they always say, ‘Oh, he was the greatest guy in the world,’ but with Dash it was actually the case.”

Dash and Donuts

One story that brings laughter from men who served with him is about donuts.

“He loved donuts,” Chief Wyant said. “Am I wrong? But Melissa didn’t like that he loved donuts.”

According to Mitchell, there was a watch room that Dash would spend some time in when he wasn’t fixing something at the workbench.

“He’d go up there and he’d have his donut,” Mitchell said. “We would have someone open the back door in the evening time, so he’d think it was Melissa and he’d scramble to hide all the evidence. ‘Donuts and Dash’ is pretty legendary.”

According to Captain Joel Musselman, Melissa did catch him with a donut at least once.

“It was summer, so we had all the bay doors open,” Musselman said. “He had literally just taken a bite and here she comes walking in the door – just the look on his face alone was just priceless. He knew he’d been caught and there was nothing he could do.”

Always Calm

“He was my first captain,” Musselman said. “We went to our first fire on South Street off 10^th. He said, ‘Just follow me. We’re going in.’ We’re going in this fire and you can feel the hair on your ears start to stand up – it’s that hot. We just kept going until finally we’re at the scene of the fire. He just opens up, puts it out and says, ‘Well, okay.’”

There was an apartment fire in downtown Noblesville that Mitchell responded to with Dash.

“Dash was just as calm as he could be,” Mitchell said. “He was on the radio saying, ‘Hey, Noblesville, we’ve got a little smoke showing. Yeah, I see a little flame. Yeah, somebody just jumped out of a window.’ I’m in the back just freaking out. A downtown fire with people jumping out of windows! He was just as calm as he could be. I don’t know if his blood pressure ever got above 120 over 80.”

Deputy Chief Chris Gellinger’s story about Dash’s ever-calm demeanor involved Ken Gilliam.

“Gilliam was driving and Dash was his captain,” Gilliam said. “They were going out Pleasant Street toward 37. They cleared the hill and the light turned red. It was a slick night. Gilliam slammed on the brakes and the truck did a complete 360, slid out on to 37 going the right direction and they just kept going. So Gilliam looked over and said, ‘Pretty fancy driving, wasn’t it?’ All Dash said was, ‘I’ve seen better.’”

Lasting Impact

Several men in the Noblesville Fire Department remember Dash from their first days on the job. Several also remember his last.

“When we had a retirement party for him, he wanted to do it here with his old crew,” Gellinger told The Reporter. “We set up it in the bay. Kind of just like in the movies, as the party was winding down we caught a house fire. We all got on the trucks and left. As I look over Dash was standing there crying because his old crew left without him.”

Chief Wyant said that was just something you didn’t expect from Dash. “You know that inside he was torn up, but you’d never expect to see it,” Wyant said.

John Dashiell was diagnosed with cancer in March of 2017, just a few years after he and Melissa moved to Florida.

“He never complained,” Melissa said. “He went through all the chemo and treatments and finally the doctors said they couldn’t do anything more for him. Ever after that he was feeling good. He said, ‘If I’m dying, I don’t know it because I feel fine.’ So we did as much as we could. We went to all kinds of places.”

They were in Omaha for Thanksgiving with their children and their grandchild in November.

“We had a great Thanksgiving,” Melissa said. “He was good the next day. Then he went in the hospital that weekend and died December 8. We had no idea that was going to happen. We were with the whole family, so that was the good thing about it.”

Dash was always surprised at how many people knew him.

“That always cracked me up,” Melissa said. “It’s funny how a shy person thinks. But I know John would have loved this. Even though he was shy, he liked recognition – everybody does. I’m sure he would have really enjoyed the fact that he had a newspaper article written about him.”

This reporter certainly hopes so.

“There are parts of Dash still here in the way some of the people worked with him and learned from him,” Chief Wyant said.