Robert "Bobby" Patrick Halton

Retired Fire Chief Robert “Bobby” Patrick Halton passed away suddenly on the evening of Monday, December 19, 2022 at his home in Collinsville, Oklahoma. A native New Yorker, Bobby was born in the Bronx in June of 1955 and grew up on Long Island in the town of East Northport. His parents, Felix and Margaret Halton raised him in a loving home along with his five sisters and one brother until he graduated high school in 1973 and headed to the State University of New York in Geneseo to begin college.

It was at Geneseo that Bobby and Marcia met his freshman year but soon found himself drawn to New Mexico and subsequently chose to complete his BA at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque in 1979. Between completing college courses Bobby become a local celebrity in the early skateboarding community. Following college he served as a Ranger with the U.S. Forest Service and then decided to pursue his interest in helping people by enlisting in the paramedic training program with Albuquerque Ambulance. Soon after Bobby and Marcia were married in August 1983, he realized that his future was a career in the fire service. He applied and was accepted into the Albuquerque Fire Department and graduated from the AFD Training Academy on the day his twin sons, Dean and Ryan were born in July 1984 and was blessed in 1990 with his third son, Evan.

Bobby’s love and passion for the fire service as a career firefighter never waned. He rose through the ranks to Chief of Training and then Chief of Operations until his retirement from the Albuquerque Fire Department in 2004. He then accepted a job as Chief of the Coppell Fire Department near Dallas but within two years was offered the position as editor-in-chief of Fire Engineering magazine in 2006 and moved with his family to Tulsa to work for the PennWell Publishing Corporation. Bobby served as editor-in-chief for 18 years where he grew Fire Engineering Magazine into the preeminent publication and authority on firefighting training and safety.

Serving family and the American community at large with the collective brotherhood and sisterhood of the fire service was his life’s honor. Chief Halton was a member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs and served on several technical committees for the National Fire Protection Association. Aside from the Firefighter Cancer Support

Network, he was also involved with National Fallen Firefighters Life Safety Initiatives when he was not delivering fire service training around the country as FDIC’s Educational Director. Bobby will always be remembered for his impassioned speeches at FDIC, and his unapologetic devotion to God, family, friends and the Constitution.

Bobby also lived his life to the fullest outside of the fire service where he cherished spending time on his boat at Skiatook Lake in Oklahoma as well as showing off his prized 1965 Ford Mustang at car shows across the Midwest. Bobby is survived by his wife, Marcia, his three sons, Ryan, Dean and Evan, his daughter-in-law, Kristin, two grandsons, five sisters, Mary Cahill, Elizabeth Halton, Kathleen Wright, Theresa Johnson, Bernadette Black and one brother, Raymond Halton in addition to twenty nieces and nephews.

The family has requested donations be made to the Ray Downey Courage and Valor Foundation in lieu of flowers.

Clarion Events

110 South Hartford Ave

Tulsa, OK 74120

Attention: Courage and Valor Foundation