Patrick Fitzmaurice is a Chicago Fire Department legend. He’s now retired as Paramedic Crew Chief after “45 years, 7 months, and 28 days” on the job.
As ambulance fleet commander, he saved thousands of lives, cut down the emergency response time to save more lives, and angered tight-ass bureaucrats and fakers with his moxie chip-on-the-shoulder aggressive stance against a variety of stupid rules, laws, and morons.
He’s seen stuff that most people shouldn’t see: horror on the streets of Chicago, young kids dying in his arms from either gunshot or drugs or just bad luck.
Pat notoriously challenged former Mayor Rahm Emanuel; endorsing his opponent and stood up to the Rahmster when confronted in a firehouse with an implied handshake of obeisance from the Mayor. Hundreds of firefighters watched as Patrick and Rahm stood nose to nose, neither giving an inch. All saw the look in Pat’s eyes as he cussed him out under his breath. He was and is a man of principle and righteous grit.
Johnny in front next row Jimmy Claudette Patrick, Terry Tommy in the back
We met in 2017 when I nominated Pat for an Irish Echo First Responder Award and we traveled to New York City together with our wives and John Fitzpatrick comped us at his hotel on Lexington Avenue.
Pat’s mellowed in his retirement, but I still wouldn’t want to mess with him. Last week he told me his younger brother Terry died, (liver cancer), in March. Terry ran the Painters union in Chicago for years and Pat Fitz told me stories of his younger brother. Both attended Foreman High School. Pat was Best Man at Terry’s wedding.
They grew up around Grand and Cicero. “Terry was a year younger than me. We were a total of six kids, five boys and one girl, my sister, she’s a saint.”
Cub Fan Pat Fitz.
“Terry was head of Painters District Council 14, started as an apprentice, journeyman, worked at different shops all around the city, and then he got a job with the City of Chicago, and he was paintin’ it out at O’Hare airport, where he became shop foreman, and then shop steward, and then he became head of the shop.”
And eventually Local 14 boss.
“He was a hard-core union guy right down to his bones, man. He was still a working man all the time, he wouldn’t mince words”
Sounds just like his older brother.
Terry and Pat
In Chicago, sports team allegiance is your religion. North siders are born Cubs fans and live their lives accordingly. But not Terry Fitzmaurice. He was a White Sox fan, and let everybody know it, including his Cubs loving family. “Craving confrontation” might be the Fitzmaurice family motto.
Once upon a time both brothers were working out of O’Hare airport, Terry with the Painters, and Pat with the Chicago Fire Department EMS. Terry saw some firefighters painting numbers on their hoses and beefed. “Those guys aren’t union painters!”
Terry would have kicked Van Gogh’s keester while asking to see his union card. It’s a scene that played out throughout their lives.
Fitz with Houlihan
Meanwhile, Pat was starting fights with his own union because he felt the paramedics weren’t equally represented by the CFD. He started having quasi organizing meetings with fellow paramedics and ‘da Mayor, and his minions wanted Pat to shut up. So where did Pat hold their organizing meetings? At the Painters Local 14 headquarters, compliments of Terry.
Terry advised his older brother Pat to “just make sure you duke the guy who cleans up and stay outta our beer in the fridge and we won’t have a problem.”
The brothers went to the 1985 Super Bowl with their dad. Terry beefed to a publican because nobody knew the lyrics to “Bear Down, Chicago Bears."
Guy says “write them down for me…and sing it every 15 minutes real loud and you can drink on the house!” And they did, while Dad said, “He couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket!”
Terry once got a call from City Hall, “Get your brother to pipe down about a Paramedic union.”
Terry laughed, “Are you kiddin’? Nobody’s been able to shut him up since the day he was born!”
Pat recently saw sheet metal workers picketing Home Depot by his house, felt Terry reaching out to him from beyond, and he went out and bought them all a huge pizza. Guy says, “OMG you’re Terry’s brother! He was a legend at the Chicago Federation of Labor with the painter’s union. He was an advocate for the workin’ man!"
Pat response: “I just felt like fifteen feet tall!”
