FREELAND — Two years into Ken Starkweather’s retirement, he searched for a spark in a new spot.

Starkweather had moved to Freeland, and was looking for a way to put down roots. He found it when he volunteered as a firefighter and EMT for Fire District 3.

Starkweather left his accounting career at age 45 after his wife, Debbie, told him they had enough money and that she’d rather have him home than at work.

“It was my suggestion for Ken to retire as early as he did. We agreed at an early age that time to do whatever we want to do is more important to us than the accumulation of more money,” she said. “The way we live, we don’t go and buy expensive things.”

However, Starkweather said, financial planning is essential for early retirement.

“There came a point in my life at

45 years old, that I realized if I controlled my lifestyle, I didn’t have to work any more and I bailed out of the corporate world. And we came to Whidbey Island,” he recalled.

Starkweather was born in 1953 at Agua Dilla on Puerto Rico, where his father served in the Air Force. He didn’t have time to put down roots when his father moved to Iowa to join other family members there.

He recalled moving around a lot throughout the Midwest during his formative years while his father worked on the now-defunct Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. This helped him cope easily with his numerous positions held around the world as a corporate accountant for Dow Chemical after graduating from the University of Iowa in 1975.

“I was certainly amenable to transfers because I’d grown up that way,” he said. “My wife and I don’t have children, which made it a little bit easier for us to move. And she had a great attitude.”

Of all the places he and his wife have lived, an island in some ways similar to Whidbey was his favorite.

“My favorite location while working for Dow Chemical was New Zealand,” he said. “It was very relaxed and similar to here in a way; down to freezing in the winter and up to 80 degrees in the summer.”

Despite winning attitudes and choice locations, including New Zealand and Tokyo, Starkweather longed to settle down.

In 1998, he retired from a generic pharmaceutical company just outside of Boston and moved to Freeland. Two years later, after getting to know his community, he saw a sign seeking volunteers for the fire department.

“I’ve moved my entire life and never really stayed in one place long enough to get involved in the community. Here,

I had that opportunity and I had the time,” he said. “So I signed up.”

Giving back to the community was one reason, he said. But there was another part of him that wanted to know if an ex-suit at the ripe age of 47 could get through the fire academy and become a firefighter. Starkweather struggled with the academy but made it through.

“If there hadn’t been one guy who was 10 years older than me with seven fingers who would not cry uncle and quit, I might not have made it through,” he said.

“If he wouldn’t quit, then I wouldn’t.”

For someone who saw himself as “different from being a firefighter as a person can be,” Starkweather has enjoyed his time helping the South Whidbey community.

“I enjoy working with the variety of people. The department has a wonderful diversity of people,” he said. “I enjoy working and giving back to the community.”

After working nearly five years as a firefighter, Starkweather transitioned into working as an EMT and works in the duty crew program, where he works 12 straight hours from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays. It’s earned him the nickname “Mr. Tuesday.”

“I took the first responder training. A year later, they offered the EMT training and I took that,” he said.

“An EMT can do a few more things than a first responder and we have a few more tools. It was a great move for me because a huge majority of our emergency calls are straight medical calls. That means I get to do more.”

And doing more is better than being prepared to do more, he said.

At 54, Starkweather is not worried about when he’ll quit being an EMT, as he has told his supervisors to tell him to go home when it is time, if he becomes more of a hindrance then a help at the scene of an emergency.

“If I didn’t enjoy this, I wouldn’t do it. It is not how I put food on the table,” he said. “So I get to do what I want to do. That is a pretty neat thing.”

His wife agrees.

“I think it is wonderful he does that, because it gives him something to feel good about himself,” she said.

He has made his mark at Fire

District 3 as well.

“Ken has impressed me from the start. He is very motivated,” said Deputy Fire Chief Mike Cotton. “He understands the bigger picture as far as the operation of the fire district goes. I think that comes from his experience with the corporate world.”

When Starkweather is not fighting fires or answering medical calls as a volunteer, he plays golf with his friends, spends time with Kiwanis and does bookkeeping for a local art association.

“This is not a career. It is not a hobby. It’s more serious than that,” he said. “It is just a community service that I enjoy.”

“Everyone gets satisfaction from helping people to a different degree. I have never lived anywhere in my life that I felt this sense of community service and volunteerism that this island has,” he said.

Spencer Webster can be reached at 221-5300 or at swebster@southwhidbeyrecord.com.