Three months after Vashon’s fire chief announced he planned to leave the department in the coming months, Chief Hank Lipe has resigned and will leave June 30.

Lipe, who has led Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR) since 2008, publicly announced his intentions to leave VIFR in March when former Assistant Chief George Brown retired. At the time, Lipe said he expected to remain until his successor was selected, but those plans changed when he was offered a job as the director of emergency management in Plymouth, Massachusetts — a position he will begin July 11. The decision to leave the fire service was a hard one, Lipe said, but he stressed the time is right for a new chief at VIFR.

“We’ve made huge strides, important strides,” he said. “It’s time for new leadership, new energy to take the district out the next five to eight years.”

To head the search, Vashon’s fire commissioners have retained the Issaquah-based firm Prothman, which helped the district hire both Lipe and Brown. Lipe said he has been working closely with the board to write the profile for the next chief, and one of the firm’s recruiters is a lifelong friend and a former Shoreline fire chief, who was instrumental in Lipe taking the position on Vashon.

“He is well qualified, and I have met with him extensively to help the commissioners find new leadership,” he said.

Noting some of the substantial challenges the fire department is facing, including the August closure of the Franciscan medical clinic and questions regarding the possibility of combining Vashon’s paramedics with those of South King County Medic One, board chair Candy McCullough said the department is at a critical juncture and she and her fellow commissioners want expertise in the hiring process.

“Let’s get someone who can really sort through the weeds and come up with the best options,” she said about the decision to hire Prothman again. “We want someone (a chief) who is up to the challenge and capable.”

McCullough noted she expected the commissioners to discuss interim leadership at their Tuesday meeting, after press time.

Reflecting on Lipe’s time on Vashon, she credited him with being a visionary, bringing in Brown and overseeing the internal processes that accompanied the sometimes difficult changes he was tasked with making, and developing closer relationships with the island’s disaster preparedness groups. Lipe’s most important accomplishment, however, she said, was healing the relationship between VIFR and the community, which was poor when he arrived.

“If that is the only thing he did, which it wasn’t, that would have been enough,” she said.

Lipe also noted the importance he placed on improving that relationship.

“The community and the district have compensated me very well, and with that comes the responsibility to provide for the public trust,” he said. “Hopefully, I have achieved that.”

Other accomplishments, he said, included strengthening the volunteer program to meet the increased emergency medical needs on the island, completing several successful audits and having a hard-working staff all dedicated to making the department work with — he hopes — an increased sense of community in their positions.

Reached at his home in Idaho, Brown expressed great appreciation for having worked with Lipe for six years. Brown recalled that when he began, Lipe said his intent was for them to co-lead the organization in a true partnership, a rare arrangement in the fire service. They did work that way, Brown said, adding that he learned a great deal from Lipe.

“The lessons I learned from him about being a chief administator were immeasurable,” he said. “He should be recognized as a fire chief that allowed others to grow.”

In particular, Brown said Lipe taught him the art of listening better and the value in being involved with surrounding organizations to reach a desired goal.

“We are more integrated with King County as a whole,” he said, “and the organization has much better confidence in itself.”

Their relationship extended from the professional to the personal, Brown added.

“I received a lifeong friendship out of this,” he said.

Looking ahead at VIFR, McCullough noted staff and volunteers will be critical during the upcoming transition period.

“The next six months at least will be trying, but trying times often bring out the best in people,” she said. “We have a large team of people that are like that.”

Lipe agreed, saying he is leaving the district in good hands.

“There is no doubt in my mind it will continue to operate at the highest levels,” he said.

Randy Tonkin, the local union president, not available by phone before press time, emailed a statement regarding Lipe’s departure and the upcoming challenges ahead.

“The members of the firefighters’ union IAFF Local 4189 would like to thank Chief Lipe for his years of service on Vashon-Maury Islands,” he wrote. “This is a dynamic time for VIFR and the Vashon community in terms of our health care systems, and the next chief will have an important role to play in defining the vision for the future. We want to assure the members of the community that during these periods of change, the responders from VIFR will continue to offer excellent service.”

McCullough and Lipe both noted that when Lipe was going through the hiring process in 2008, he said he would like to serve as chief until his daughter graduated from high school, and he would then re-evaluate his career. His daughter is now finishing her first year of college, and that re-evaluation has taken place. Lipe and his wife Marianne both want to continue to work, he said, but they wanted to return to New England and be closer to family. The position in Massachusetts makes those goals possible.

“Both logistically and professionally it met a lot of our objectives, which we had a whole shopping list of, family being at the top,” he added.

In addition to being near their extended family, living in Massachusetts will put them closer to their son in Cincinnati and enable them to watch their daughter race more regularly; she rows for the University of Wisconsin-Madison and often competes in the East.

When he leaves Vashon, Lipe will leave behind nearly four decades in the fire service.

“I think 39 years is admirable, and it is time for me to hang up my fire helmet and still make a contribution,” he said.

Lipe began his career as a volunteer firefighter in Montgomery, Ohio, in 1977. In 1979, he was hired full-time and worked his way up the ranks, becoming a fire chief there in 1992. In 1995, he was hired as the fire chief in Windham, New Hampshire, and in 1999 became the fire chief and emergency management director in Hampton, New Hampshire.

Last week, on the cusp of leaving, he noted the challenges of the career.

“The demands of the job have taken their toll over the years mentally and physically,” he said.

In recent years, others in the field who had previously retired advised him that he would know when it was time to leave the fire service, he said. Last winter, he knew.

“It’s hard to break away, but I’m ready,” he said, emotion filling his voice. “We have thoroughly enjoyed living here. The people are wonderful, and we will miss them.”