Mount Pleasant Fire Chief Doug Lobsinger retires Oct. 30, 33 years after his first night of training

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — Doug Lobsinger, who has led the Mount Pleasant Fire Department since May 2023, will retire Oct. 30 after 33 years with the department, the city announced.

Lobsinger joined as a paid-on-call firefighter on Oct. 18, 1993, and went to his first fire training course that night, according to the city. He went full time in 1997, was promoted to sergeant in 2015 and to assistant chief in 2018 before being named chief.

The city’s announcement did not name a successor or say how the job would be filled.

Much of his career was spent teaching. Lobsinger is a certified EMS and Fire I instructor, the city said. He also directed the city’s Neighborhood Resource Unit, ran a state-funded grant program that helped residents improve the outside of their homes, and doubled as fire chief and fire code official for Union Township.

Public Safety Director Paul Lauria said Lobsinger’s influence reached past the firehouse, pointing to his work on the city’s TNR program, which traps, neuters and returns stray cats, and on organizing Greeks Cleaned the Streets. “He understood that public service was bigger than just his role as Fire Chief,” Lauria said in the city’s announcement.

Lobsinger said his proudest legacy was not a single fire, promotion or achievement. “It is the people,” he said. “I am proud of the firefighters who show up every day ready to help someone they may never have met.”

He plans to spend more time with family and friends and to fish, the city said. “Once a firefighter, always a firefighter,” Lobsinger said.

Sources:
City of Mount Pleasant, “Mt. Pleasant Fire Chief Doug Lobsinger Retires After 33 Years of Service”, https://www.mt-pleasant.org/news_detail_T10_R343.php
Photo: SteveStrummer, “Dexter Michigan Fire Dept 2015,” July 25, 2015, Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/), cropped and color-corrected, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dexter_Michigan_Fire_Dept_2015.JPG

Mid-Michigan

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