Retirement often means a chance to slow down, find some new hobbies and create your own schedule. But not for one Ventura County couple. They are as busy today as they were before leaving their paid jobs.
Bob and Sue Engler both thrive on service and have spent their lives helping others. Bob started out as a paramedic in 1975, spent 10 years doing that, and then became a firefighter with the Redondo Beach Fire Department.
“The people I worked with were all super good people and when you surround yourself with good people, it’s easy to do the job,” he says. “And, to make such a difference in someone’s life when they really need it is why I went into this career.”
During his long tenure, Bob had a lot of opportunities to help others, and some of those experiences have stayed with him. On one occasion, he and his crew were called out to a medical emergency involving a young man.
“He was taking a shower, passed out and fell through the glass door,” says Bob. “He had a shard of glass lodged into his brachial artery [in the upper arm] and he was bleeding out quickly.” Upon arrival, Bob put his hand into the man’s wound to control the bleeding. He kept his hand there all the way to hospital, where they took out the glass and repaired the artery.
“About two or three weeks later, his dad came in and thanked us for saving his son’s life,” he recalls, still tearing up at the memory.
Bob was also involved with the massive Redondo Beach Pier Fire in 1988. “We had a small 25-foot fire boat and our task was to go under the pier to try to keep the fire from spreading,” he says. “It was so smoky that we kept crashing into the pilings and at one point when the smoke briefly cleared it appeared that the pier was falling on top of us. What was really happening was that we were slowly moving forward into the pier. That was an attention getter!”
For most spouses, it would be very difficult to deal with their loved ones being in this kind of danger, but Sue accepted and was proud of the career Bob chose. But that didn’t mean she didn’t worry at times.
“One day when the kids were young, I turned on the news and saw the pier fire and that was very concerning,” she says. “We went to the station and they said, ‘Bob will be fine.’ I had no idea he was even injured. He lost his helmet under the pier and the helmet with Engler on the back washed up onto the shore during the fire, so they were pretty concerned that he was without his protection.” Bob sustained an eye injury, but luckily was otherwise okay.
Sue, he says, was the home commander. His schedule often led to many missed holidays and so they would often celebrate holidays on different days. So, if he was working on the Thursday of Thanksgiving, they might celebrate on Friday or Saturday.
“Or we would go to the fire station and hang out with the other families there,” says Sue. “On Christmas, a firefighter dressed as Santa would ride in on a ladder truck. You would celebrate holidays and special events whenever you could.”
In addition to raising two children, Sue also worked as the CPR Coordinator for the Beverly Hills Fire Department, which led to her becoming a volunteer with the Red Cross three different times in her life.
“When I was working for the BHFD, I had about 120 volunteers and we taught CPR. About 20% of the Los Angeles County–trained CPR students were trained through us. While there, I was closely involved with the Red Cross in the Southern California/Los Angeles County area. When we moved to Ventura County, I volunteered in a nearby Red Cross office for about three years. About the time Bob was getting ready to retire, we both joined.”
Today, Sue is a recovery casework chief and her greatest involvement is in disaster response. She’s been on hand to lead many large disaster relief operations, such as with the Caldor Fire in California in 2021 and with Superstorm Sandy in 2012 in the Northern New Jersey area.
“In 2017, I responded to Hurricane Harvey in Houston, and immediately following that I went to Hurricane Irma in Florida.” In February 2020, she responded to Puerto Rico when the deadly earthquake hit and stayed for three weeks until COVID shut everything down.
“It’s the type of experience where you know you’re one of the people who, along with the other disaster responders you’re working with, have made it possible for people who have lost so much to look toward what they need to do to regain their life and start planning for what they need to work toward.
“Like with Bob’s experience, you are there during a horrific time and you’re that kind, empathetic person who can guide them toward finding their path. It’s a wonderful feeling to be there at a challenging time for them.”
Sue and Bob encourage others to find ways to serve their communities as well. The rewards gained are worth everything you give.
“Being a firefighter is a physically challenging job and it’s hard being away from family, but it’s a very rewarding job as well,” says Bob. “With the Fire Department, you see the results of your labor fairly quickly and that in itself is a reward. It’s something that I just loved to do.”
And for the Red Cross, getting involved is as easy as going to its website at RedCross.org, where you’ll be directed to your local Red Cross office.
“There are a lot of different areas to volunteer with,” says Sue. “You can work in the front office, you can respond to home fires, or you can install smoke detectors and teach people how to maintain a disaster plan in their homes. So, there’s public education, there’s CPR and first aid, there’s disaster response and working in a shelter when someone has nowhere to go. There’s pretty much something for everyone.”
Unfortunately, she says the Red Cross has been busier than ever.
“We are more active than we like to see. We’ve had a lot more wildland fires over the last four years in California. The weather systems that used to just hit the gulf are now moving further north along the Atlantic coast into the Appalachians. There are going to be more consistent areas of need.” The Red Cross is also involved with operations for the Afghanistan evacuees and was recently involved with the Haitian border crisis.
In addition to all of this, Bob has also been a member of the Thousand Oaks City Council for the past three years.
“Local politics is the greatest of all I think because of the immediacy of it,” he says. “You’re basically looking at how you’re going to make the place you live better. It’s not a partisan type thing. For me, it’s simply a way to continue service.”