Firefighter Anthony Centimano served his country, now serves his community

ST. CHARLES – Anthony Centimano spent his senior year of high school in 1994 as a cadet firefighter with the St. Charles Fire Department.

It was a part-time paid job in which students older than 16 years but younger than 18 could learn about the fire service and get high school credit for it.

“It was a lot cooler than a gas station job,” Centimano said.

After graduating from St. Charles East, Centimano enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps.

When he separated from service in 1999, he came full circle, rejoining the St. Charles Fire Department, where he serves as a battalion chief at First Station 1, 112 N. Riverside Ave., St. Charles.

“I make sure everybody knows what to do,” Centimano said.

Adding to his continuing service to his community, Centimano has been a paramedic since 2002.

Centimano serves on his homeowners association board and always participates in the Staff Sgt. Jacob L. Frazier Memorial Golf Outing at Central High School in District 301.

“He was a student at Central who died in Afghanistan in 2003,” Centimano said.

Proceeds of the golf outing go to Central High School’s athletic program and the Illinois Military Family Relief Fund.

Centimano also participates in the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation Golf Outing.

His wife, Jennifer, said taking care of others is “inherent in him.”

“He’s been serving the public throughout his life,” Jennifer Centimano said.

“Serving the country and then coming home and serving the public,” she said. “He takes care of us, too. It’s really inherent in him to take care of others. He comes from a single mom and he took care of his mom and his sister. We are a blended family and he is taking my own kids on as his own. … He is a wonderful guy, definitely a family guy.”

Centimano has a daughter and his wife has a son and a daughter, she said.

Golf, she said, is his hobby and gives him a chance to relax.

“He got my son into it so they golf together,” Jennifer Centimano said.