HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A beloved Hendersonville fire captain passed away this week following a short battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 58 years old.
Don Dallenbach was truly dedicated to Hendersonville. He graduated from Hendersonville High School and spent 32 years with the Hendersonville Fire Department.
The Hendersonville Fire Department is giving longtime Captain Don Dallenbach full honors in lieu of his passing on Sunday.
Dallenbach was escorted by his brothers in blue —members with Hendersonville’s fire and police departments— to Long Hollow Church on Thursday. It will be a uniformed effort by local first responders to ensure Captain Don is sent off properly.
“We’re going to have other fire departments come into the city and take our calls while we memorialize Don and his family [on Friday],” said Scotty Bush, Hendersonville Fire Chief. “There’s departments from Gallatin, Mt Juliet, Brentwood, White House, Lebanon… so many agencies, it’s kind of hard to give you all of them.”
Bush knew Dallenbach since they were in high school. Over 40 years of friendship, most of which were spent working alongside each other. He added he will remember Don as a mentor and a methodical man who gave all he had to others.
“Don loved serving the citizens,” Bush told News 2 Thursday. “Didn’t matter what Don was doing, if a call dropped, you were getting 110% of Don’s effort, and it was always professional, it was of the highest care, the highest level of safety involved. Don did not cut anybody short anybody short in our community, ever.”
Dallenbach died less than 2 months after learning of his illness: Metastatic Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer. He wished to raise awareness towards cancer screenings for firefighters, and Bush said they will honor that.
“An ounce of prevention goes a long way. And I’m not saying it would have made a difference with Don, but I know Don wants us to certainly push forward and give our staff the best level of protection and coverage that we can,” he said.
News 2 had the chance to meet Don shortly after his diagnosis. We asked him what it meant to spend his entire career serving his hometown.
“It’s the best job you could ever have. Never regretted it one time. Every day I put the uniform on, I’m proud of it,” Dallenbach told News 2’s Sam Chimenti in late November.
Dallenbach’s funeral service will be held at 12 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17 at Long Hollow Church in Hendersonville.
The procession afterwards will feature a full fleet of firefighting vehicles, leading Don from the church, past his fire station, Station 5, and ending at his final resting place, Memory Gardens in Hendersonville.
