He was by all accounts the perfect firefighter, a good husband and dad, a quiet man of strength and courage who never boasted, loved toy trains and put his life on the line for others.
And Ruben Gomez also was the first Hispanic firefighter in Alameda County.
In the on-again, off-again rainstorm of March 11, they laid Fire Capt. Gomez to rest in Gilroy, the town in which he was raised, one of 18 children. He was 82.
So special was his memory to those with whom he served in the Alameda Fire Department for 26 years that more than two dozen of its active and retired firefighters attended the funeral at St. Mary Roman Catholic Church on First Street.
And although Gomez had retired to San Martin in 1991, a gleaming red Alameda Fire Department ladder truck made the 90-minute drive to Gilroy to represent that city’s appreciation for his long service, which included an award for valor for risking his own life to save a brother firefighter’s life. It was an incident he never even mentioned to his family until it came out in an awards ceremony, to his wife’s great surprise.
Members of Gomez’s family, including four children, some of his 12 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren and scores of friends filled the church for the funeral Mass and the burial at St. Mary Cemetery.
“He was such a kind man,” said his wife of 62 years, Melicia, 79, who’s known as Millie. They met at a dance in Gilroy, after her future husband had moved with his family to California from El Paso, Texas, in 1942 and she had moved to Gilroy from Brawley.
Ruben Gomez graduated from Gilroy High School in 1953; he and Millie were married the same year at St. Mary’s Church.
His widow described Ruben as a man who loved dancing, from Mexican to swing, and looked forward each year to a hunting trip with fellow firefighters to Colorado or Idaho.
“Hunting season, that was his thing,” she said, adding, “It was just wonderful for him to go.”
His other love was toy trains, which he collected with relish, scouring yard sales and flea markets for collectable engines and cars, according to his family.
Daughter Maria Gomez, 51, of Morgan Hill agreed, describing her dad as dark-haired, light-skinned with brownish-greenish eyes and always on the thin side.
“He was very quiet and very strict with us kids. He came from a generation that did not show a lot of emotion” so he showed his love and affection by doing for others, she said.
In her case, it was to teach her all he knew about working around the house and on cars, to the point that she loved doing mechanical work on her own car and knew he’d be quick to pitch in, saying, “get out of the way, you’ll make a mess,” she said.
He bought Maria her first car, a 1955 Chevrolet, when she was 12. She said she still has it.
“That is how he showed affection, by doing things for you; he was always willing to help someone out,” she said.
The couple’s other children are Barbara Burrows of Livermore, Ruben Gomez, Jr. of Van Nuys and David Gomez of San Martin.
Gomez was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease six years ago and it took his life, Maria Gomez said.
After marrying, the newlyweds moved to Oakland, and later to Hayward, where Gomez worked for Babcock Manufacturing, a fabricator of workshop vises. It was there that a foreman urged him to take the test for the Alameda Fire Department.
He was hired in 1964 but kept working part-time for Babcock and worked the two jobs until he retired in 1991, Maria said.
“He’d walk in the house in his fire department uniform and go into his room and come out in his street clothes and go to his part-time job,” she said, recalling their days in Hayward.
When her parents in 1991 wanted to “come home” to South County and relocated to San Martin, she followed them to Morgan Hill, Maria said.
And while he never boasted or bragged about it, she said the family is very proud of the fact that he was the first Hispanic firefighter in Alameda County.
“There was still a lot of prejudice at that time,” she said.
By all accounts, Ruben Gomez had a reputation for selfless courage on the fire line, a great sense of humor with his brother firefighters—and for being a terrific cook in the firehouse.
None of which he shared with his family.
He was quiet and reserved, Maria said, and he never shared in kitchen duties at home. So it came as a complete surprise when his fellow firefighters revealed he had a terrific sense of humor, cooked the best Mexican food and earned a medal for valor in the line of duty.
The latter went unknown to his family until Ruben told Millie they had to attend an awards ceremony—where, it turned out, he received a medal of valor for pulling an unconscious partner from a burning and smoke-filled building.
Millie Gomez recounted how her husband and his partner were nearly overcome by smoke in the pitch-black dark of the building and had to feel their way along the walls for an exit. After making it out and to a nearby fence, Ruben turned to see his partner was not behind him. He returned to the burning building and, groping in the dark, located his unconscious partner and pulled the man to safety, she said. At the ceremony, his tearful partner thanked Gomez for saving his life.
At the Alameda Fire Department, Chief Doug Long remembered Gomez as “very competent and knowledgeable man, quiet and soft spoken” and someone people liked to be around. He was held in the highest regard, Chief Long said.
Long and Gomez served together for three years during Gomez’s tenure from August 15, 1964 to Oct. 1, 1991.
So devoted was he to the fire service that his widow wanted him to be buried in his fire captain’s jacket, but was terribly conflicted because she also wanted to keep the jacket among the memories of her husband.
She asked if the jacket could be put on her husband for the funeral, then be returned to her before the burial, but was told that to put the garment on him it would have to be cut all the way up the back and fitted onto him. She could not do that to the jacket.
Maria Gomez said that after she shared her mother’s quandary with the Alameda Fire Department, three firefighters sent their own jackets to be used, her aunt did a few alterations on one, including making copies of adornments specific to her father’s uniform, and Capt. Ruben Gomez, Alameda County’s first Hispanic firefighter, was buried in one those.
