A 25-year veteran of the department, Trumpf, 54, lost a two-year battle with cancer last week.
"It is OK to let Chris go, knowing he rushed into the burning house of life," the Rev. David G. Carpenter, pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Morristown, told about 200 people in the church Wednesday morning. "Now the fire is out. It's time to go back to the station to rest."
Family and members of the Morristown Fire Department had a private service at Par-Troy Funeral Home in Parsippany. A processional, led by the Morristown fire chief car, drove to the Morristown fire station for a final farewell.
In front of the station, Trumpf's gear and empty boots pointed toward the open station doors, a traditional farewell for those in fire service. Firefighters slowly saluted as the family stood in silence. Three engines in the station had their lights flashing as sirens blared. The station doors slowly closed as the family drove away.
At the church, Trumpf's grown children, April Tribus and Bill and Tracy Trumpf laughed as they remembered their father's obsession with his hair, his meticulous cleaning and his sodding and seeding the lawn in front of the Morristown fire station. Tribus said that her father "lived and breathed" the fire department.
Trumpf was a 10-year volunteer firefighter in Whippany before he was hired full-time in Morristown.
"When he looked back, he thought he had made a mistake in working so many hours," Tribus said. "I didn't see it that way. He did it so he could tell his friends not to make the same mistakes he had."
Trumpf and his wife, Debbie, were married for 34 years. They met when she accidentally made a wrong turn into a fire station.
"Nothing made him happier than to see her smile," Tribus said. Tribus is expecting what would have been Trumpf's fifth grandchild, due to arrive in October.
The Trumpfs had built a house in Myrtle Beach,S.C., a plan they had for their retirement. They lived there for five months, moving to South Carolina after Trumpf received a bone marrow transplant in Seattle in September 2003. It was in May when the family was told that the leukemia had returned and spread.
From the day he was diagnosed in July 2002 with Myelodysplastic syndrome, a precancerous condition, through the day of his funeral, Trumpf's illness brought the community together in an outpouring of support.
When the family realized that Trumpf would need a bone marrow transplant, Tribus decided to host a drive to find a donor, either for him or for some of the 3,000 people on the national waiting list. She found support from the Morristown Professional Firefighters, and together they hosted a blood drive in November 2002 that added 1,200 people to the national bone marrow registry.
In an example of the brotherhood shared by members of the fire service, the Hawthorne Fire Department hosted another drive dedicated to Trumpf in January 2003. Although they only had lived in South Carolina for five months, a service for Trumpf was held there, as well.
On Wednesday, firefighters throughout the county volunteered their time to cover the Morristown and Whippany stations, so those firefighters could attend the services. Trucks from Cedar Knolls, Morris Township and Madison covered the Morristown fire station, as 30 to 35 firefighters were deployed to cover areas throughout the county, said James Davidson, Cedar Knolls fire chief and the head of the mutual aid association.
He said some volunteer firefighters took off of work and full-time members used a vacation day.
Thousands of messages from family, friends and strangers appear on a Web site created so Debbie Trumpf could keep the community updated about her husband's progress.
Longtime friend and fellow Firefighter Bob Whitehead said Wednesday that he met Trumpf before Whitehead was even hired in Morristown. Sixteen years ago, now-Chief David Barter and Trumpf drove to his house to tell Whitehead they were pulling for him to receive a full-time job with the department. Whitehead said he saw them coming and felt his heart pounding with anxiety.
"I didn't realize that this childlike feeling had nothing to do with becoming a firefighter," Whitehead said. "It was the Lord telling me that I was about to meet a man who would become as close and dear as a brother to me."
The men fought fires together. On their days off, they worked in carpentry, barbequed with their families and shared a boat.
When Trumpf was recovering from the bone marrow transplant in Seattle, Whitehead arrived at his side.
"We are all better people to have had Chris in our lives," he said.
Trumpf's nephew, Brian Pearson, said his uncle was there offering support and help with his family's business after Pearson's own father died. When Pearson came to Morristown to have his blood tested to match as a bone marrow donor, he said he remembers changing the diaper of one of his twins.
"Uncle Chris stayed with me," Pearson said. "He said, 'Make sure you treasure your children because I treasure every minute I have with mine.' Even though we feel this loss, we gained so much by having Chris Trumpf in our lives."
