PARIS – Honorary Paris Fire Chief John C. Bryant, a 53-year member of the department, died Friday morning at Stephens Memorial Hospital. He was 75.

A firefighter’s funeral, with pall bearers, honor guards and fire engines, will be held in his honor at 1 p.m. Monday at the new Paris Fire Station on Western Avenue. Details of the funeral were still being arranged late Friday.

Visitation will be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday at the Weston-Chandler Funeral Home, 45 Main St., Paris.

Members of the 38-member Paris Fire Department will join family, friends and many members of neighboring departments and the Western Maine Firemen’s Association for the funeral.

Bryant joined the Fire Department in 1950, and served as its chief for 27 years. In June 2002, as his health began to fail, he became honorary fire chief, and continued to serve the department by dispatching from the station during fire calls.

When Bryant joined the department, it was a completely volunteer, and over the years “he made the Fire Department what it was,” Town Manager Steve McAllister said.

“He was respected by firefighters and by everybody as a town leader,” McAllister said. “He was a very, very dedicated individual and he genuinely cared about the town of Paris.”

A World War II Navy veteran, Bryant was a member of the Western Maine Firefighters Association. He worked as a filling station attendant, a salesman, a paper carrier for the Lewiston Sun Journal and as a letter carrier for the post office.

Bryant was not afraid to speak his mind about town issues, and was an active citizen participant at town meetings and selectmen’s meetings. He fought for many years as a member of the town’s Fire Station Committee to convince voters of the need for a new fire station to replace the outdated 83-year-old station at Market Square.

He once said he would be happy just to see the new fire station built before he died. He, along with the other chiefs, was presented with a golden shovel at the ribbon-cutting dedication of the new station in June.

His successor as fire chief, Bradley Frost, remembered Bryant as a “cantankerous” man who had a big following.

“If you didn’t want to know something, don’t ask him,” Frost said.

Yet Frost said that while he and Bryant didn’t always agree, “John has taught me a lot, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without him.”

Bryant is survived by his wife of 54 years, Betty Martin Bryant of Ledgeview Living Center, West Paris; a daughter, Toni Hamlin of South Paris; two sons, Timothy and Terry both of South Paris; granddaughters, Kimberly Hamlin and Charlotte Bryant; stepgranddaughters, Karen Morrison, Lindsey and Stephanie Piirianen; three brothers and their wives, Joseph and Evelyn of Brunswick, Richard and Nan of Conway, N.H., and William and Ursula of Tampa, Fla.; and many nieces and nephews.

Bryant, who was born in Buckfield, will be buried in the Buckfield Village Cemetery. Memorial gifts in his memory may be made to the Paris Fireman’s Relief Association, Western Avenue, Paris.

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