Last month, the Bedford community lost one of its most dedicated and passionate residents.

Ralph Wiggin, longtime fire chief and friendly figure in town, died March 5 at Hillsborough County Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center after a period of declining health. Wiggin was 88.

He left behind a legacy of firefighting and community service, that not only left its mark on his son Jonathan, who became a firefighter himself, but on a community that has showed an outpouring of support to Wiggin’s family since his death.

Jonathan Wiggin said his mother, Ralph’s wife Fran, has received more than 600 cards from people remembering her husband. Ralph and Fran were married 62 years.

Jonathan Wiggin, 57, of Dunbarton, is the current fire chief at the Dunbarton Volunteer Fire Department Association and was also a firefighter in Concord for 30 years. He said his father’s commitment to the Bedford Fire Department – where Ralph Wiggin worked for 52 years and was chief for 27 years – played a big part in his choice to be a firefighter.

“It’s in your blood and you can’t really get rid of it,” Wiggin said. “It meant a lot to him. He was pretty proud that I became a firefighter. It’s one of those things … I grew up around it and it’s what you want to do.”

Jonathan Wiggin said he’s learned a lot about his father through the cards and stories he’s heard around town since his father’s death. One story that stands out to him was from a man who lost his wife several years ago and said Ralph Wiggin used to take him out to lunch every Wednesday to talk and keep him company.

“He loved the town and he’d do anything for the community,” Jonathan Wiggin said.

Jonathan Wiggin said he joined his father at the Bedford Fire Department when he was old enough, in his teens, and later joined the department in Concord. He has since retired and has lived in Dunbarton for 10 years. He now works part time at the volunteer department in his town.

The Bedford Fire Department was strictly a volunteer operation when Ralph Wiggin started. He helped it grow by adding full-time firefighters in 1972 and helped expand the department to what it is today, Jonathan Wiggin said.

Ralph Wiggin also started the Bedford ambulance service. Bedford was one of the first New Hampshire towns to do so in 1969.

“You used to wait forever for an ambulance,” Jonathan Wiggin said. “He started it in the Fire Department because they were already trained in first aid. Now, it’s the norm. Now, most small fire departments run the ambulances, too. He saw that potential way back when.”

Ralph Wiggin was born in Bedford and was a descendent of the town’s first settlers, Robert and James Walker.

Ralph Wiggin graduated from Manchester High School West in 1941. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and also renovated homes through his own construction business, Ralph M. Wiggin and Sons Construction Co., while the Bedford Fire Department was still a volunteer’s job. He joined the Fire Department at age 17.

He was involved in not just the Fire Department, but all over town:

He was a founding member of the Bedford Historical Society, a past president of the Bedford Garden Club and the Bedford Unity Club, a trustee of Bedford cemeteries, a trustee of the Bedford Center Old Cemetery Association, a charter member of the Bedford VFW Post 8401, manager of the Bedford Baseball Team, past president of the Bedford Little League, an elder of the Bedford Presbyterian Church, past president of the New Hampshire Fireman’s Association and a past president of the New Hampshire Association of Fire Chiefs.

Ralph Wiggin stopped work as fire chief in 1992 but won Bedford Citizen of the Year in 1998. He and Fran had two sons – the other is Kendall Wiggin, who lives in Windsor Locks, Conn. He did not immediately respond to calls for comment.

Jonathan Wiggin said it was sad to see his father’s health decline in his final year when he couldn’t be as active in the town as he always had been. Instead, Wiggin would brighten his father’s spirits and the two would talk “fire stuff” for hours.

“That’s what I’ll miss the most,” Wiggin said.

After what he’s done for the town, it won’t be the only thing missed about Ralph Wiggin.

Cameron Kittle can be reached at 594-6523 or ckittle@nashuatelegraph.com.