351 years of service on Monongah Fire Department

 

 

 

 

The Monongah Volunteer Fire Department has been honored by West Virginia Fire Marshal for its 351 combined years of service!

Monongah Fire Chief Harless McCombs, Class of 1976, has been with the department for 45 years.

Josh Slagle is the department’s Fire Captain and has 19 years of service.  

All the members received Life of Service awards.

Harless is married to Monongah Middle School language arts teacher and children's book author Lisa Myers McCombs, Class of 1977. His brothers are Kevin McCombs, married to Vicky McCombs, and Bill McCombs, former Monongah Fire Department assistant chief and Monongah Water Plant chief operator forever till his retirement who is married to Monongah Town Recorder Patty Steele McCombs.

Lisa’s mother, Pat Myers, taught at Monongah Elementary and her father, John Myers, was the Golf Pro at Green Hills Golf Club for many years.

 

Because his dad also was named Harless, Lisa’s husband goes by “Mutt.” Mutt’s mom is Loretta June Fox McCombs.

Harless attended more than 200 consecutive football games in Mountaineer Field. That’s even better than my 30 years of season tickets to Mountaineer Field. Harless had an advantage: His mother started taking him to Mountaineer Field when he was 7 years old.

Bill’s wife is Monongah Town Recorder Patty Steele McCombs, a Fairmont East graduate deeply involved in promoting the annual Monongahfest Festival. They’ve been married 42 years. She moved to Monongah in her 20s, around the time she married Bill. Patty has been Town Recorder for 16 years. Bill has served on Monongah’s Town Council, off and on, for more than 20 years. And put in 23 years making sure Monongah’s water was safe to drink.

Bill and Patty owned for five years the Dairy Kone built and operated by Amelia Shenasky Zentz and her late husband Bruce Zentz.

Patty’s mother, Helen Lousie Stacy, passed away in 2017.