{"id":778156,"date":"2026-05-06T21:41:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T21:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/778156\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T21:41:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T21:41:17","slug":"chicago-calling-patrick-fitzmaurice-keeping-it-all-in-the-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/778156\/","title":{"rendered":"CHICAGO CALLING: Patrick Fitzmaurice Keeping it All in the Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patrick Fitzmaurice is a Chicago Fire Department legend. He\u2019s now retired as Paramedic Crew Chief after \u201c45 years, 7 months, and \u00a028 days\u201d on the job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As ambulance fleet commander, he saved thousands of lives, cut down the emergency response time to save more lives, and angered tight-ass bureaucrats and fakers with his moxie chip-on-the-shoulder aggressive stance against a variety of stupid rules, laws, and morons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Irish Echo Newsletter<\/p>\n

Sign up today to get daily, up-to-date news and views from Irish America.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s seen stuff that most people shouldn\u2019t see: horror on the streets of Chicago, young kids dying in his arms from either gunshot or drugs or just bad luck.<\/p>\n

Pat notoriously challenged former Mayor Rahm Emanuel; endorsing his opponent and stood up to the Rahmster when confronted in a firehouse with an implied handshake of obeisance from the Mayor. Hundreds of firefighters watched as Patrick and Rahm stood nose to nose, neither giving an inch. All saw the look in Pat\u2019s eyes as he cussed him out under his breath. \u00a0He was and is a man of principle and righteous grit.<\/p>\n

\n\"Johnny<\/p>\n

Johnny in front next row Jimmy Claudette Patrick, Terry Tommy in the back<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

We met in 2017 when I nominated Pat for an Irish Echo First Responder Award and we traveled to New York City together with our wives and John Fitzpatrick comped us at his hotel on Lexington Avenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pat\u2019s mellowed in his retirement, but I still wouldn\u2019t want to mess with him. Last week he told me his younger brother Terry died, (liver cancer), in March. Terry ran the Painters union in Chicago for years and Pat Fitz told me stories of his younger brother. \u00a0Both attended Foreman High School. Pat was Best Man at Terry\u2019s wedding.<\/p>\n

They grew up around Grand and Cicero. \u201cTerry was a year younger than me. We were a total of six kids, five boys and one girl, my sister, she\u2019s a saint.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\"Cub<\/p>\n

Cub Fan Pat Fitz.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cTerry was head of Painters District Council 14, started as an apprentice, journeyman, worked at different shops all around the city, and then he got a job with the City of Chicago, and he was paintin\u2019 it out at O\u2019Hare airport, where he became shop foreman, and then shop steward, and then he became head of the shop.\u201d<\/p>\n

And eventually Local 14 boss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a hard-core union guy right down to his bones, man. He was still a working man all the time, he wouldn\u2019t mince words\u201d<\/p>\n

Sounds just like his older brother.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\"Terry<\/p>\n

Terry and Pat<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In Chicago, sports team allegiance is your religion. North siders are born Cubs fans and live their lives accordingly. But not Terry Fitzmaurice. He was a White Sox fan, and let everybody know it, including his Cubs loving family. \u201cCraving confrontation\u201d might be the Fitzmaurice family motto.<\/p>\n

Once upon a time both brothers were working out of O\u2019Hare airport, Terry with the Painters, and Pat with the Chicago Fire Department EMS. Terry saw some firefighters painting numbers on their hoses and beefed. \u201cThose guys aren\u2019t union painters!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Terry would have kicked Van Gogh\u2019s keester while asking to see his union card. It\u2019s a scene that played out throughout their lives.<\/p>\n

\n\"Fitz<\/p>\n

Fitz with Houlihan<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Pat was starting fights with his own union because he felt the paramedics weren\u2019t equally represented by the CFD. He started having quasi organizing meetings with fellow paramedics and \u2018da Mayor, and his minions wanted Pat to shut up. So where did Pat hold their organizing meetings? At the Painters Local 14 headquarters, compliments of Terry.<\/p>\n

Terry advised his older brother Pat to \u201cjust make sure you duke the guy who cleans up and stay outta our beer in the fridge and we won\u2019t have a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The brothers went to the 1985 Super Bowl with their dad. Terry beefed to a publican because nobody knew the lyrics to \u201cBear Down, Chicago Bears.”<\/p>\n

Guy says \u201cwrite them down for me\u2026and sing it every 15 minutes real loud and you can drink on the house!\u201d \u00a0And they did, while Dad said, \u201cHe couldn\u2019t carry a tune in a bucket!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Terry once got a call from City Hall, \u201cGet your brother to pipe down about a Paramedic union.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terry laughed, \u201cAre you kiddin\u2019? Nobody\u2019s been able to shut him up since the day he was born!\u201d<\/p>\n

Pat recently saw sheet metal workers picketing Home Depot by his house, felt Terry reaching out to him from beyond, and he went out and bought them all a huge pizza. Guy says, \u201cOMG you\u2019re Terry\u2019s brother! He was a legend at the Chicago Federation of Labor with the painter\u2019s union. He was an advocate for the workin\u2019 man!”<\/p>\n

Pat response: \u201cI just felt like fifteen feet tall!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patrick Fitzmaurice is a Chicago Fire Department legend. He\u2019s now retired as Paramedic Crew Chief after \u201c45 years,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":778157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818,131049],"class_list":{"0":"post-778156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois","11":"tag-irishecho"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116529810213837314","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}