Raleigh's newest downtown monument, a memorial to North Carolina firefighters who died on duty, has thousands of donors, hundreds of supporters, and dozens of shepherds at The N.C. Fallen Firefighters Foundation.

But the depiction of an imperiled firefighting team has a single originator: a young, trim, self-effacing, country fire chief from the Triangle named Paul Dunwell, who five years ago dreamed up the monument since dubbed "Heroism and Sacrifice."

Dunwell, then a captain at Fairview Rural Fire Department near Apex, and a group of other firefighters spent years building support for the project and raising money at weekend firehouse speeches and community festivals from the mountains to the coast.

Others have overseen the $500,000 construction project in the middle of Raleigh's downtown Nash Square park, turning Dunwell's goal into reality.

But without Dunwell's vision, North Carolinians and survivors of the state's more than 100 fallen firefighters would have no central place to honor their sacrifice.

"Paul had a dream," says Gene Moore of Swift Creek, a Realtor, former firefighter and the foundation's chaplain. "He was able to bring in people who caught the dream. Paul has been an inspiration to me and to others."

Dunwell, 35, traces his inspiration to his grandfather, Paul F. Dunwell Jr., a World War II sailor killed in 1942 when his ship was sunk at Guadalcanal.

The elder Dunwell was honored with other war dead on a memorial at the USS North Carolina in Wilmington, which the sailor's son and grandson visited together in 1999. It made them cry. And it gave the young Dunwell an idea.

Grasping the importance of that memorial to his father, and worrying about the relatives of six Massachusetts firefighters killed in a warehouse fire later that year, Dunwell started thinking about the families of North Carolina's fallen firefighters.

Some of them didn't get death benefits, much less a place to grieve for their loss. They had no memorial like his grandfather's.

Dunwell couldn't accept that. In March 2000, Dunwell incorporated the foundation, with him as president of the board.

"I knew in my heart and my soul that it needed to be done," he says during a visit to check the progress of the unfinished monument. "It took a lot of work, a lot of effort, a lot of meetings. It was almost like being told: Prove it."

Dunwell sent letters, e-mail messages and faxes to state lawmakers, other firefighters and friends, enlisting their support.

"He was determined that this was going to happen," recalls Sherri Deroche, an original foundation board member and the office manager at Dunwell's fire department. "He would send letter after letter to Elizabeth Dole, to the State Fire Marshal's Office, to legislators in the General Assembly. Sometimes he worked all night on those letters."

Dunwell, a Raleigh native, also grew up in Tucson, Ariz., and Boca Raton, Fla. He graduated in 1989 from Apex High School, where he played baseball.

At age 18, inspired by his maternal grandfather to pursue a career in public safety, he volunteered with the YRAC Rural Fire Department near Cary while working as an IBM lab technician.

Dunwell trained as an emergency medical technician at Wake Technical Community College but was drawn to firefighting.

When the chance came in 1992, he quit IBM and joined Wake's New Hope Fire Department full time. In 1998, he moved as a captain to Fairview, where he was promoted to chief in 2002.

"I've seen him go above and beyond in a lot of different situations," says Deroche, who has worked with Dunwell for seven years. When ice storms hit, he drives around his fire district, checking on elderly shut-ins.

Next page >

Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.