STILL BURNING BRIGHT
A Fire Goes Out
In May 2016, Doug retired from his job as a
human resources supervisor at UPS, and he and
his wife, Mary Bauer-Dauenhauer (a human
resources executive with Amazon) purchased
190 acres in Kentucky’s Marion County – “our
retirement property,” Mary said. The intent now
was to build a museum housing his collection. The
plan for it was to be in adjoining Taylor County in
south-central Kentucky.
But, a year later – almost to the day of his
retirement – Dauenhauer was killed while riding
a lawn mower, clearing brush and paths, at his new
property. A tree fell on him and he died instantly.
The property, the collection and the vision now
fell to his widow.
Through her tax advisor, Rick Fields, Mary
was introduced to financial advisor Dick Wilson,
senior vice president of wealth management at
The Trident Group in Louisville, which is affiliated
with international banking and advisory firm
Morgan Stanley.
DOUGLAS DAUENHAUER loved all
things about firefighting.
It may have started for him as a boy just as it
has for countless American youngsters: hearing
the bells and sirens, chasing the trucks with the
spotted Dalmatians on board, daydreaming about
wearing one of the signature red helmets and
dashing heroically into the fire to save humanity.
As an adult, though, Doug took it beyond
boyhood fantasies. Starting about 13 years ago,
he began traveling the country, purchasing as
much vintage fire equipment as possible. Not just
the axes and hoses and hatchets, but many of the
trucks themselves, all dating from the postwar
1940s through the mid-50s.
It wasn’t a pursuit of valuable antiques he could
sell for profit. It was to honor all firefighters, especially
in rural communities, and to educate younger
generations who may have little knowledge of the
history, bravery and significance of those efforts.
Tragedy often pursues firefighters, and it crept
into the life of Doug Dauenhauer, as well. But the
ongoing results of his efforts might be just as heroic
to his purpose and, in fact, to Southern Indiana.
“I was advised that I had two options,” Mary
said. “I could commission an auction and sell the
collection off. Or, I could pursue Doug’s vision. I
decided not to sell. I wanted the collection to be
loved and appreciated in the way Doug would
have wanted.”
Going Forward
Now the task was to find a place that could hold
the nine fire trucks, a 1950 Chevrolet Coupe fire
chief’s car, the original life nets used in a New York
hotel fire, a full-scale antique fire pole, uniforms,
medical emergency kits and lighting, backpack hoses
and sprayers, bells and ladders, plus three vintage
police cars. Doug had also been in the process of
acquiring a couple of antique ambulances.
“He had an overarching focus on recognizing
and appreciating emergency responders in general,”
said Mary.
Dick advised Mary on the financial benefits of
legacy donations and charitable foundations. He
also pointed her to an existing local fire museum she
hadn’t been aware of: the Vintage Fire Museum in
downtown Jeffersonville, a growing and nationally-
respected museum.
“By the end of the year (2017), I had made
a donation in Doug’s and my names to the
Jeffersonville museum,” said Mary. And she kicked
off plans to move the collection there, although it
would not be an easy fit. “It’s the largest collection
the museum has received. It would triple their
inventory and their footprint.”
In fact, it was a collection the museum
was physically unable to handle in its current
incarnation, a former Bales Motor Co. showroom
that had been made available to the museum by
the city five years ago. Instead, it was going to
require renovation of one of two former Bales
buildings on the site at Spring Street off East Eighth
Street. That will – present tense – require funding,
plus marketing strategy to build awareness of the
museum and its expanded collection.
Spreading The Word
“We think the donation can be the catalyst for
this museum’s expansion and for the corporate
strategy required to market the museum and
spread the word,” Mary said. “Our goal is to create
a national museum, which is what Doug was trying
to achieve. And the goal aligns perfectly with the
Vintage Fire Museum’s goals. These are people just
as passionate about it as Doug was.”
Mary said her models for the scope of the
Jeffersonville museum are probably the two leading
American firefighting museums located in Phoenix
and Dallas.
“The Phoenix Fire Museum, in particular, is
considered a premium national museum,” Mary
said. “It’s what collectors and museums aspire
to.” (It’s probably purely coincidental that the
mythological phoenix, after whom the Arizona
city was named, had a longstanding relationship
with fires.)
The Vintage Fire Museum
In fact, the Jeffersonville museum is probably one
of the five best museums in the country, as well,
according to its board chairman, Curtis Peters, a
retired Indiana University Southeast philosophy
professor.
The museum has a collection of fire equipment
dating back to 1786, which includes horse-drawn
and hand-pulled trucks and pumpers, as well
as motorized trucks. It’s been part of an overall
revitalization of downtown Jeffersonville. It’s
also part of a group of neighborhood attractions
that form a kind of historical museum row for
Jeffersonville and Clark County and include the
Howard Steamboat Museum near the river, the
Schimpff’s Confectionary museum inside the
famous candy store, the Falls of the Ohio Museum
and the Clark County Historical Museum.
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 : EXTOL
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