CHAPMAN, DONALD L.

CONCORD—Firemen in the Mt. Diablo Fire Protection District Saturday carried out their captain’s request for “one last ride” in a fire truck.

The body of Capt. Don Chapman, 41, was escorted by more than 100 firemen of fire districts all over the Bay Area from the MacFarlane-Bryant Chapel to Memory Gardens, where he was buried.

Capt. Chapman, of 901 Bailey Road, died early Wednesday [December 19, 1962] while horseback riding.

A 10-year veteran of the department, he had requested that upon his death he be taken to a cemetery in a fire truck.

District Fire Chief Ray Mangini said that although this type of funeral procession is common in the east, “I don’t believe it has been done in this area before.”

All 42 of the district’s off-duty firemen were on hand, along with representatives from every fire district in Contra Costa County.

Capt. Chapman began as a hoseman in 1952 and in 1956 was appointed captain of the West Pittsburg station.

He was with Carlson’s Raiders in World War II. He was a member of St. John’s Masonic Lodge 725, F and AM, and business representative of Local 1230, Firefighters’ Union.

He leaves his widow, Beatrice; two sons, Michael and Jeffery; and a daughter, Cathleen.