ASHER PRENTICE: Registered # 358 Distribution # 170

Died May 5, 1934.

Place of residence at time of death.  Cook County Institution in Bremen.

 

 

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Contributor:	Mary M. Wyscaver Novak	[email protected]	May 2005

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Contributor:	Kenneth Gruschow 	[email protected]	May 2005

New York Times (1857-Current file); Dec 1, 1934; pg. 3.

 

FIRE CHIEF GIVES LIFE RATHER THAN QUIT JOB
Arthur Seyferlich, Chicago, Forbade Leg Amputation, Fearing Inactivity.

 

  CHICAGO, Nov. 30  (AP).---Fire Commissioner Arthur Seyferlich, who refused to permit the amputation of an infected leg because "a one-legged fireman is no fireman at all," died at 9 A.M. (Central standard time) today.
  Mr. Seyferlich, who was 63 years old, had undergone two blood transfusions since he was told last week that he would die unless he permitted the amputation.  After the second one, given yesterday, a bulletin issued at the Henrotin Hospital said the veteran fire fighter was improving.
  Hundreds of friends called at the hospital to extend Thanksgiving Day greetings, but few were admitted to his room.  The commissioner, however, had made such a rally that he enjoyed a turkey dinner.
  Early today, however, his condition took a turn for the worse and he died soon after.
  The commissioner's ailment was diabetic gangrene.  Told bluntly that the odds against him were impossible, he deliberately chose to die rather than quit his job.
  Mr. Seyferlich had been a fireman so long that civil service records do not show the date he entered that service.  Steady promotion made him a lieutenant in 1897, a captain in 1904 and a battalion chief in 1908.
  Mayor Thompson made him fire marshal in 1918.  Under Mayor Dever he was assistant fire marshal, and became head of the department again in 1923.  He resigned in 1927 and was reappointed in October of 1933.
 

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