Retired Syracuse Firefighter Proves It’s Never Too Late to Graduate

Pictured: David Corbett, at left, with Chairman Doug Whittaker of the fire protection technology program during Onondaga Community College’s Student Honors Ceremony on May 1, 2013.

Life keeps getting better for retired Syracuse Firefighter David Corbett, who achieved two significant milestones within a three-day span in the month of May. "I got my college diploma on the 18th and my first Social Security check on the 21st. How many people can say that?" said Corbett.

The 62-year-old Corbett’s story is truly amazing. After graduating from Syracuse’s Nottingham High School in 1969, he began taking classes at Onondaga Community College. The college was only eight years old and located in a single building in downtown Syracuse, a building it shared with a typewriter maker. After his first semester, Corbett decided to take some time off. "I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. Vietnam was going on and everyone my age knew getting drafted was a possibility." Corbett decided to go to Florida with some friends, but less than a year later he returned to Syracuse.

In 1973 Corbett became a Syracuse City firefighter, following in the footsteps of his father who was a well-known fire investigator in the department. When he wasn’t serving the public, Corbett stayed busy. He owned The Peanut Shop next to the Landmark Theater in downtown Syracuse. He also co-owned Skippy’s Ice Cream Truck, which every child loved to see coming down his or her street on a hot summer day. In between all of his activities, Corbett kept taking a class here and there at Onondaga Community College in subjects that interested him. In 2008 he retired from the fire department as a lieutenant and started taking a more serious look at his college education. He had accumulated enough credits to graduate but didn’t have enough within a single major. Corbett decided to work toward a degree in what he knew best, fire protection technology.

Onondaga Community College had moved out of the city and now sat on a bustling, 280-acre campus high atop Onondaga hill. When Corbett came up for classes, his primary instructor was someone who was once his pupil on the job, Doug Whittaker, who was also a retired Syracuse firefighter. Whittaker joined the fire department in 1983, met Corbett almost immediately after he started working, and to this day recalls advice Corbett gave him. "We were standing in Fire Station 1 and David told me, ‘The best thing a veteran firefighter can do for a rookie firefighter is teach him how to stay safe so he can become a veteran firefighter.’ And that’s what he did, every time we were together." With Whittaker now the teacher and Corbett the pupil, Corbett took a class each semester and finished his work toward a degree in time to graduate earlier this month.

The commitment to protect and serve is now in its third generation in the Corbett family. Two of his three sons, Mike and David Jr., are Syracuse firefighters. The third son works in the banking industry. Will there be a fourth generation of firefighters in the Corbett family? "It’s possible," says the elder Corbett. "I have two grandchildren, and two of my children aren’t married yet!"

Click here to view a local news story on David Corbett's achievement.