He fits all the positive stereotypes of a big man — right up to hero — and three months from Sunday, on Dec.20, the giant, Jeff Eastman, the Fire Chief of Culver City is retiring. He will go home to his family to stay — or he will leave (his professional) home for the final time.
A gentle giant who steps kindly, sensitively, quietly.
This has been the way of the soft-spoken Mr. Eastman, tall and husky in appearance but not in conduct. For the last 6 years that he has held the job, Mr. Eastman, by his impressive, toned-down manner, has blotted out the traditional image of police and fire chiefs as gruff-talking grunters. They chew gravel and broken glass at mealtime, expectorating wherever they want.
He came along when the accent in firefighting was shifting from physical prowess to brainpower, and colleagues say he was naturally equipped for the changeover.
The accomplished 3-child family Mr. Eastman and his wife Yvonne have been raising, imminently is headed for thrilling intersections in ever-changing young lives.
Those soaring occasions should distract the Chief’s attention for awhile from the slightly flattening out feeling that frequently accompanies retirement at 55 years old.
Coming and Going
On Sunday, the Eastmans will deliver their younger daughter Kelly to the campus of UCLA.
The celebration of daughter Kristin’s recent graduation from Cal State Channel Islands with a degree in psychology barely has had a chance to settle in.
Finally, family excitement will take wing again in November when son Brett, a loadmaster on a C-17, completes his 4-year commitment to the U.S. Air Force. He has served in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq.
And so it will not require any imagination to envision the Eastmans’ relief at getting him home.
Firefighting is an Eastman family tradition. The Chief’s father, Don, retired from the department in Santa Monica, where he still lives.
Mr. Eastman made up his mind earlier this year to retire from the only fire department he has known in his 32-year career.
But he didn’t begin to disclose his call until recent days.
“This is a really tough decision,” he said this morning, and his true feelings were revealed in a brow that was troubled.
“Now the problem is that the more people I tell, the more real my decision gets.
“It is scary.
“I don’t know what I am going to do.”
As the Chief breaks out of the only regimen he has known since 1977 — a life where there was no working distinction between weekdays and weekends — the single certainty seems to be that Jeff and Yvonne Eastman at last will be able to pursue some serious traveling. There was one more classic Jeff Eastman moment this morning after he had answered several questions.
In closing, he said, “Thank you for caring.”
