Former Fire Chief Ted Lowden honored by township for 31 years of service upon retirement
For 31 years, Thaddeus “Ted” Lowden served the Evesham Fire Department.
At the Nov. 10 meeting of the Evesham Township Council, the township honored Lowden for his more than three decades of service and congratulated him on his recent retirement.
Lowden, a lifelong resident of the township, first began his service to the town as a volunteer with the Marlton Fire Company in 1975, before becoming a career firefighter in 1984 and then fire chief in 1989.
In addition to that role, over the years, Lowden has also been active in many other fire service organizations, including the New Jersey State Career Fire Chiefs Association, the National Society of Executive Fire Officers, the Burlington County 200 Club, the New Jersey Fire Chiefs Association, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the Burlington County Fire Advisory Board and the Burlington County Fire Chiefs Association.
Upon receiving so many thanks for his years of service, Lowden gave his own thanks to the township and its residents for allowing him the chance to serve and provide for his family.
“The fire department made my life and my family’s life and for that I’ll always be allegiant to it and dedicated to it,” Lowden said. “We have a great fire department, not because of what I did, but because of what a lot of people did along the way.“
Lowden said he was extremely fortunate to get a job with the fire department so early on in his life, and thanked the township and its residents for continuing to support various fire district elections and bond issues over the years.
“We never asked for more than what we thought was good for the fire department, and therefore good for the people in this community, and you supported us every time,” Lowden said.
Lowden also thanked his wife and son for all the support they’ve given him during his years of service, even if it meant there were family moments he had to miss and times where he couldn’t always be as involved as he would have liked.
“They supported me the whole way and for that I’m appreciative,” Lowden said.
Regarding the future of the department, Lowden said taking something one loves and passing it over to someone else can be a traumatic experience, but in his case, it wasn’t so because he had passed the reins to former assistant chief and now new chief Brian Ward, who Lowden characterized as extremely capable.
“He’s going to be a great fire chief and he’s just going to pick it up and make it his own, and he’s going to do great things for the township,” Lowden said.
Upon presenting Lowden with a proclamation honoring his dedication and years spent with the department, Mayor Randy Brown praised the great working relationship between the department and township under Lowden’s leadership.
“What you’ve brought to Evesham fire and what you’ve meant to us as an organization has been amazing, and we are really proud of what you’ve done,” Brown said.
Lowden received numerous awards during his career, including the Burlington County 200 Club’s Distinguished Service Award, the Burlington County Emergency Services Lifetime Achievement Award, the C. Kenneth Anderson Lifetime Achievement Award from the New Jersey Fire and Emergency Medical Services, as well as being runner up for the Fire Chief of the Year Award as sponsored by the International Association of Fire Chiefs in 2005.
