MVFD’s Denson Ready to Paint, Travel

On most weekday afternoons for the past 36 years, Barbara Denson has found herself engulfed in the day-to-day machinations of the administrative side of the fire service. Depending on whom you ask, those machinations might have actually included running the at times.

“The only complaint I have about Barbara is that most of my firefighters and battalion chiefs think she’s the chief,” Mill Valley Fire Chief Greg Moore joked at last Monday’s City Council meeting. "Barbara and I started in fire service at the same time and both of us rose to the rank of fire chief, although she got there long before I did.”

Regardless, it’s safe to say where Denson expects to be on many weekday afternoons once she retires Aug. 18: “Reading a book – and finally doing what you want to do and not what you have to.”

Denson grew up in Oakland and became a fifth grade teacher after graduating from UC-Berkeley. When her family moved back to the Bay Area after her husband graduated from Harvard University, a part-time role as an administrative assistant at the Tamalpais Fire Protection District provided a smooth transition.

“I could still volunteer in the classroom and be a good parent,” she said. “I never thought I’d still be sitting here after all these years.”

Denson has been with the department since its consolidation with the Tamalpais district in 1981. When the two departments broke apart in 1994, she stayed with Mill Valley.

During the 17 years since then, Denson has worked with eight fire chiefs and four city managers. Moore credited her with being a vital cog in putting together the department’s annual budget and for being a source of institutional knowledge.

“And she’s not afraid to look you in the face, as she’s done with me many times, and say, ‘Are you sure you want to do that?’” Moore said.

In addition to serving as the department’s budget analyst, Denson is also the Southern Marin Emergency Medical Paramedic System (SMEMPS) secretary and is instrumental in developing and maintaining the SMEMPS budget, Moore said.

Despite a love for the job, Denson is clear that she has plenty of things to do with her newfound free time. She has two grandchildren to spend time with and plans to take art classes for the first time in her life in the hopes of taking up abstract painting.

An avid hiker, Denson also plans to do more long, multi-day hikes like the five-day, 50-mile High Sierra loop in Yosemite she recently completed.

The department has a number of going-away events set for Denson before she retires, and she’ll miss being a part of the family that develops within a department over many years.

“You get to share in everybody’s marriages and babies and where their kids are going to college,” she said. “It’s just a great environment. I feel very privileged to have had this job.”

“I should’ve written a book,” she said.