WALDENS CREEK, Tenn. (WATE) – Friends and family bid farewell to a Sevier County native and founding member of the Walden’s Creek Fire Department who died earlier this week.

The Walden’s Creek Volunteer Fire Department honored Danny Fox at his funeral Wednesday night. He was one of the founding members of the Walden’s Creek Volunteer Fire Department in 1977. 

“He loved helping people and would help everybody, the community, family, whoever,” Fox’s daughter Dana Howard said. “He was my hero.”

She said her dad loved fishing and hiking in his free time, but he would always stop what he was doing to help somebody else. 

“He would do anything for his station,” she explained. “I remember when I was little he would get the calls at his house first before anybody, and he would be two seconds down the road and be here first.”

Fox went from being a founding member of the Walden’s Creek Volunteer Fire Department to captain. Then he was on the board of directors once he retired until his passing.

During that time, he saw a lot of changes. 

“One of the board members actually remembers him mentoring bring him on how to use the radio,” Assistant Chief Steve Schmidt said. “So it was always important for Dan to make sure people were involved in the station, properly outfitted, and knew what they were doing.”

Schmidt said Fox was more than a colleague, he was a friend. 

“It’s been seven years,” he said. “It’s been a situation where he was always the quiet one in the back of the room. I like to gravitate towards people like that and we became very good friends.”

”He was always about doing things for the community, helping people out, and if his health hadn’t gotten worse he would’ve definitely been still fighting fires with us.”

Dan Fox was 72 years old. 

Fox’s family asked that in lieu of flowers, people make a donation to the Walden’s Creek Volunteer Fire Department.