Googly eyes, pranks, love left behind: John Crist remembered as 'genuine human being'

Editor’s note: Periodically, The Herald-Mail runs “A Life Remembered.” Each story in this continuing series takes a look back — through the eyes of family, friends, co-workers and others — at a member of the community who died recently. Today’s “A Life Remembered” is about John Crist, who died Aug. 23 at the age of 54. Crist's obituary appeared online in The Herald-Mail on Aug 24.

In today's environment, people sometimes reflect on individuals with admirable traits.

Maybe it's because they served a community in an unselfish way, worked quietly behind the scenes on something important or were compassionate to others.

And people sum them up by saying the world could use more of them right now.

Friends, family and associates say John Crist, who served the Hagerstown Fire Department for 28 years, was one such person.

His unmistakable handlebar mustache, quirky sense of humor and devotion to his colleagues and family, come to mind among his friends.

A man named 'Stretch'

Crist, nicknamed "Stretch" because of his 6-foot-5-inch frame, was born July 14, 1968, in South Bend, Indiana. After high school, he joined the United States Marine Corps and served in Operation Desert Storm.

Between 1988 and 1989, he help provide security at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Frederick County, Maryland.

His wife, Nina, said in a phone interview that her husband worked with presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush there and loved them. Reagan once had Thanksgiving with a group at Camp David including her husband, she said.

While at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina in his time with the Marines, Crist volunteered for a fire department in the community. He wanted to do more of it, so while at Camp David, he searched for a fire company.

A 19-year-old man at the time, he found Hagerstown and decided he liked the city because of the surroundings and its proximity to areas like Washington, D.C.

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He volunteered at the Hagerstown Fire Department and in 1994, was hired as a career firefighter there. He transferred to the city fire marshal's office in 2008, where he stayed during the rest of his career working as a deputy fire marshal.

Crist died Aug. 23 from injuries he sustained in an off-duty crash about four months ago on National Pike near Hollow Road in Frederick County.

During his time in Hagerstown, the 54-year-old gained a reputation as someone who always looked after members of the department, helping them with life struggles and consoling medics or other fire marshals after they dealt with tragedies on the job, such as fatal fires.

He never acted like the person in charge at the department, but stayed focused on vital work, such as training for members, friends and colleagues said.

'Sometimes the only hand' to help

The lives he touched were evident in the crowd that showed up at Hagerstown Community College's Kepler Theater on Aug. 28 for his service.

Mark Cleck, a batallion chief for the Hagerstown Fire Department, recalled how Crist used to give him inspirational quotes.

"Randomly I would find them on my desk, I had about a half dozen," Cleck told the crowd during the ceremony that can be viewed online. Cleck remembered that one of the quotes was from a Vietnam prisoner of war, who said to "confront the most brutal facts of reality, whatever they might be."

"That helped me get through a lot," Cleck said.

He also recalled when he ended up in the hospital to have his appendix removed and how Crist showed up, upset that he wasn't being kept up-to-date on the emergency procedure.

"If the world had you down, and everyone was reaching out to kick you, he was the hand, sometimes the only hand, that reached down to pick you up," Cleck said of Crist.

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"Friends like Stretch don't come around too often, and they're a rare breed. This world could use 10,000 more of them right now, and he's gone," Cleck said.

Hagerstown Fire Marshal Dale Fishack talked about the 14 years he spent in the fire marshal's office with Crist. Their two desks were squeezed in a tiny office, and they helped each other through health and family struggles. They had a list of work-related quotes they would refer to and laugh about to get them through their days.

Fishack recalled one in which a woman left a voicemail message with the fire marshal's office one day about a neighbor who was burning stuff in his backyard. The woman said she couldn't say exactly where it was happening because the situation was too dangerous.

"All I can say is it's in the south end of Hagerstown," the woman said in the message.

To Crist and Fishack, the quote became code for a need to get out of the office for awhile.

"When Stretch would see that I was struggling," said Fishack, his voice cracking as he tried to continue on, "he would put his hand on my shoulder and say 'let's go follow-up on the South End case."

Crist has a daughter, Jessica, from a previous marriage, and his wife Nina, has two sons, Vincenzo and Charles, from a previous marriage. Nina said she and Crist met while taking classes at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Nina said she was in fire service in Maryland's Queen Anne's County at the time, and they eventually decided to live in Hagerstown.

Son Charles, who goes by Chuck, told the crowd that when his mother and biological father went their separate ways, he felt there was no one who would be good enough for his mother. Then came along Crist.

"I can stand here as a man and tell you I was dead wrong. He made my mom a totally different person," he said. "He truly was her best friend and probably one of the best things that ever happened to my mother."

Chuck said he was able to spend time with Crist in his final weeks and told him he was a "genuine human being."

"And with all the bad today, it's something that's hard to find," he said.

The powder trick and other pranks

Tears in the ceremony were offset by tales of Crist's mischievousness, like a contraption he once set up in one of the local fire stations.

It allowed him to raise a ceiling tile, which caused a container of powder to be dumped on an innocent bystander below. Then the tile carefully closed, according to Cleck.

"When they re-did the truck company a few years ago, they probably found the stuff in the ceiling," Cleck said.

Crist also devised a "water torture" which involved use of an IV bag with a needle pushed through a ceiling tile that dripped water on a pillow.

Nina said her husband once found a pack of "googly eye" stickers in a shop during one of their many trips together. The stickers became a trademark of Crist, who stuck them on cars, inside fire houses, on statues or where ever.

"That way, they knew John was there. It was his calling card," she said.

Crist mentioned them in a Facebook post.

"Why the googly eyes? I am asked that question a lot and usually I just smile and say because I can," he wrote.

Another one of his trademarks was his handlebar mustache. No one messed with that, even at the hospital when they mentioned trimming it, Nina said.

Crist firmly believed in the importance of hobbies, thinking they were necessary in a person's life apart from working all the time, Nina said. One of his was photography.

The Rev. George Simmons, who led the Kepler Theater ceremony, recalled when he first met Crist, who at that time was lying on the ground with a camera.

It worried Simmons, at first. Is he hurt?

It ended up that Crist was trying to get the perfect shot of a restored 1927 fire truck during a community open house.

"I believe in whatever he did, he didn't just give it a try, he gave it everything he had," Simmons said.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Hagerstown Fire Marshal John Crist remembered for service to city