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Dick Leis makes pancakes during a fundraising breakfast for the department. Photo provided
Some people retire from an occupation job because they are eligible to do so. Some others retire because they have health issues. Some others retire because they want to do something else. Otto Richard “Dick” Leis has decided to retire as a volunteer firefighter for the Buffalo/Liberty Township Volunteer Fire Department after 41½ years for another reason. We will get to that later.
Although he was born in Lafayette in 1952, he’s been a Buffalo resident all his life. Dick, as he was known as by his friends, spent the first four grades in the Sitka School, the next four in the Buffalo School and finished his schooling by graduating from North White High School.
When he was young, he lived across the street from the fire station. “Fire calls always scared me,” he admitted.
The fire station, which began a year before he was born, only had a pumper and tanker when he was growing up. The station now has six trucks.
“We’ve been fortunate,” Leis explained. “Having a landfill has been really good to the township.” The township can afford to purchase the latest equipment for its station. He said the latest grass truck cost $350,000.
Dick Leis (far right) stands with other firefighters after doing some training. Photo provided
After high school, Leis went to work at RCA and Bryant Manufacturing in Monticello doing dye work. Then he went to Logansport to work as a machinist. “I’ve always been a gear head,” he said.
He married Pat Steele of Monon in 1977. Soon after they married, she had a son, Jeremy, who now works for his father at his company, the Leis Machine Shop, in Buffalo. He’s not a volunteer fireman like his father.
After being married to Pat for seven years, he joined the fire department in April 1984 at age 31. He waited until then because he “worked out of town mostly,” he explained. He did get involved before then with the fire department as he helped build a new station in the early 1980s. “I helped do some of the work doing the inside of it.”
After working for the department for a couple of years he saw a need for someone with medical experience, so he decided to get some medical experience so he could help the department in a different way. He became an emergency medical responder. “It’s one step below a EMT (emergency medical technician),” he explained. That means he can’t administer drugs or start an IV. Now the area is covered by ambulance service from Monon.
In 1987 he began his business part time in his garage. Then three years later he opened his machine shop and has been in business ever since. He’s had as many as seven employees in the Buffalo business. However, things changed in 2008 when China took over doing dye and fixture work. He had as many as seven employees before China got involved.
“I joked that I shut down my adult day care center several years ago,” he said with a chuckle. “That’s been the norm ever since.”
He sometimes puts in 14 to 16 hours of work a day if necessary to get the work accomplished. He has no plans on retiring from working at his business. His son is not interested in taking over.
Dick Leis stands next to a computerized CNC machine in his own business, the Leis Machine Shop. W.C. Madden/News & Review
In his spare time, he is a car collector. The first car he collected was for his wife. “We bought it for her to drive to work,” he said. “We ended up restoring it.” It was a 1962 Ford Fairlane. It was the first car he fully restored.
His favorite restoration job is a 1938 Ford pickup hot rod. He also has a 1957 Ford station wagon hot rod and a 1964 Rambler station wagon.
Now he’s turned his attention back to his wife. He bought a 1957 Thunderbird in California nine years ago and he’s restoring it for her “slowly.” Now that he’s retired from the fire station, he may have a little more time on his hands to do restore it. His wife hopes so.
The largest blaze he ever attended in his 41 years as a firefighter was the Jordan Manufacturing fire in 1995. “Above every department in the county came,” he said. The fire destroyed the plant and store the company had in Monticello.
Leis could have retired because of his age, since he will be 73 next month. He could have retired because of his health as he has had some heart issues. However, he retired because he’s on the Liberty Township advisory board and couldn’t vote on anything involving the fire department. Now he can.
Dick, as his friends call him, has no plans to retire from his own business. “The morning I don’t wake up, I will be retired,” he joked.
Dick Leis holds a clinical save award he received in 2023. Photo provided
He may miss the fire department in the future, but he won’t miss the benefits. “Fifty dollars a year and all the smoke you can eat,” he quipped.
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