GOULDSBORO — Alden Tracy Jr. recalls a time when serving as a volunteer firefighter in town was just what one did at a certain age.

“It’s getting to be a little more difficult” recruiting volunteers said Tracy, who was honored at a dinner May 12 for 50 years of service with the Gouldsboro Fire Department.

He said the challenges today are the hours of training required and the number of other programs that compete for young adults’ time and interest.

“You pretty just did stuff within your own community,” Tracy said of simpler times.

As an expression of their thanks for his long years of service, the town renamed Station 1 the Alden Tracy Jr. Fire Station.

Town Manager Eve Wilkinson said Tracy was a founding member of the Fire Department and started volunteering at 16.

Later, she said, he recruited his children and grandchildren.

In 1984, he was named chief of the department — a position in which he served 22 years.

Tracy, Wilkinson said, helped increase membership as well as the number of stations in town to reduce response time within the community.

Following the dinner at the Schoodic Education & Research Center dining hall, the firefighters, friends and family watched a slide show of Tracy’s years in the department.

The soundtrack accompanying the photos was “When Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.”

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