In his younger days, Chip Osborne had dreams of playing professional football, a goal that was sidelined by a serious injury.

But when one door closes in life, another often opens. And in Osborne’s case, his exploits on the gridiron eventually were replaced by a career in the firefighting field, which led to his recent appointment as chief of the Mount Airy Fire Department.

Yet the energy and enthusiasm that Osborne once brought to the football field is still quite evident with the new job that he began on Nov. 30, as well as his appreciation for the Mount Airy community.

“I love it so far,” he said during a recent interview conducted after his first full week heading the fire department. Osborne, 47, a stocky individual who displayed a super-firm handshake to a reporter, looks as if he could still suit up and play defense as he did in high school and college.

And while his dream of a pro football career didn’t materialize, his longtime work in the fire-service field has mirrored sports in terms of the camaraderie, teamwork and regimentation that profession requires.

“I like the discipline aspect of it,” he said of serving in a capacity that requires organization and training for the ever-present possibility of being called into action to save lives and property.

“It fits me very well as far as what I grew up with,” Osborne added.

He hails from Pleasant Garden, a community in southeastern Guilford County. “I have always lived in Guilford County,” said Osborne, the son of Charles Emery and Geraldine Osborne. He has one other sibling, a sister whose husband is a captain with the Greensboro Fire Department.

Osborne — whose full name is Charles Emery Osborne III — prefers to be called Chip, a name he has been known by since early in life to avoid confusion with him, his father and grandfather sharing the same name. Likewise, his dad is known as “C.E.”

“My whole time growing up was spent either playing ball, or hunting and fishing or working on the farm,” Osborne said of his family’s small agricultural enterprise that included raising cattle.

His father also traveled to various locations selling heating and air-conditioning equipment, which provided the younger Osborne an early exposure to Mount Airy. “This was his first stop for 20-some years,” Osborne said of his dad’s route, which included local businesses such as Loftis HVAC, Harrell Oil and Inman Electric.

“I rode with him some,” Osborne said of his father, who inspired Chip’s love of sports due to being a ballplayer himself.

The younger Osborne’s interests included basketball, baseball, softball and running track, but it was on the sport of football that he made his greatest mark. He was a standout linebacker at Southeast Guilford High School, which led to a full scholarship offer from Clemson University. Osborne was looking forward to attending that university after graduating from high school in 1980.

However, a broken back derailed his plans to play big-time college football and the chance to join a major program that included Clemson’s winning of the national championship in 1981.

That injury did not mean Osborne was through with football, though. He enrolled at Lees-McCrae College in Banner Elk, then a two-year institution, and after his time there migrated to Gardner-Webb University, where he served as a co-captain of the Bulldogs’ football squad.

In college, Osborne shifted from linebacker to defensive back — joking that he still was able to make good use of his basic aggressive nature.

“But, after 18 years of playing, I just sort of got burned out,” he said in citing an accumulation of injuries to his knees, shoulders, back, head and other body parts along the way. “You just get beat up pretty good.”

The fire chief is still a football fan, reflected by his coaching of Little League and other teams through the years, and attending a recent playoff game of the Mount Airy High School Bears.

“I really went to college to play ball,” said Osborne, who realized along the way that getting a degree also was important.

Osborne graduated from Gardner-Webb in 1985 with a degree in biology, reflecting a desire he had at the time to enter some aspect of the forestry field such as becoming a wildlife game warden.

Yet his career aspirations would take a second detour after he went to work as sales engineer for a company called Eagle Air Systems, which supplied products to fire agencies. “That sort of really exposed me to the fire services,” Osborne said.

“Until I was about 25 or 26, I never really cared about being a fireman.”

Experiences With Fires

With his interest in firefighting sufficiently kindled, Osborne went on to serve in various capacities with several units, including the Randleman Fire Department as a paid volunteer; the High Point Fire Department, where he was a firefighter/emergency medical technician (EMT); and the Thomasville Fire Department, in the roles of fire equipment operator and lieutenant.

He received multiple citations as a firefighter and state and national “rescue of the year” awards.

One rescue came during Osborne’s time in Thomasville when his department responded to a blaze at a single-family dwelling, which emergency personnel had trouble gaining access to because a door was blocked.

After he burst through, an elderly woman found inside was believed to be dead at first, but as fellow firemen continued efforts to contain the blaze, Osborne noticed that she was still breathing. He was able to get the woman out of the burning structure safely and resuscitate her, but the victim succumbed a couple of weeks later from smoke inhalation and other injuries.

His firefighting experiences also subjected Osborne to injuries that mirrored some of those he experienced as a football player, which included suffering third-degree burns. “That is probably the worst pain I’ve ever had in my life,” he said. “If I didn’t have my gear on,” he added of the protective equipment worn by fire personnel, “I’d probably be dead.”

Another memorable event occurred while Osborne was assistant chief of the Horneytown Fire Department when he was one of about 200 fire personnel responding to a major blaze at an RJR building.

“I’ve been through so many fires,” Osborne said in a way that suggests he does not enjoy reliving some of those memories.

Though he said he is not afraid of the force of fire, which can be beneficial as well as deadly, “I darn sure respect it — and that’s just not fire, it’s any emergency.”

Department Like

“Family”

Eventually, Osborne’s involvement in the fire-services field entered another realm when he joined the N.C. Department of Community Colleges in 1994.

He served as regional fire and rescue director for the Central Piedmont area. It was one of eight regions in the state set up to provide assistance in establishing training programs among the 58 community colleges offering fire and rescue instruction.

Osborne was in charge of a multi-county area based at Davidson Community College, where he also was coordinator of fire and rescue services.

Unfortunately, his job fell victim in June to a reduction-in-force program implemented in reaction to the state budget crisis. The cutback left the North Carolina Community College System with only three training regions instead of eight.

But another opportunity soon arose with the impending retirement of Mount Airy Fire Chief Benny Brannock, a fourth-generation member of the city department who had been employed there for nearly 30 years, seven as chief.

“This was the first place I put in an application,” said Osborne, who acknowledged that he was seeking other jobs as well. “But this was the one I really wanted.”

He had conducted a training program here last May and generally was familiar with the department and its personnel through his work as regional fire and rescue coordinator. “You get to know the guys,” he said of the role with the state department.

Osborne relished the chance to come to this community as fire chief. “I like the area — it always seemed like a really nice town.”

His appointment as chief was announced around mid-November.

And while some might expect any outsider to experience a degree of difficulty when coming into an established department, Osborne said the opposite has been true.

“They took me in with open arms, and said, ‘Come on, Chip, let’s go!’” he said of city fire personnel. “I couldn’t have been more blessed to come to a place where people have opened their arms up to me.”

Osborne is a divorced father of one child, a daughter, Lauren Greigh, 16, a competitive cheerleader who participates in events at various locations. But his recent joining of the Mount Airy Fire Department has allowed him to gain some new “relatives.”

“These guys are now my family,” he said of the unit containing 20 full-time and 17 part-time members. “They’re a great bunch of guys.”

Even if such a bond didn’t occur naturally, it must be built in some manner, Osborne believes, due to the fact that their schedules require full-time city firefighters to basically live together for about 10 days each month.

“You come to rely on them,” he said of the ties established through spending so much time with fellow firefighters and the sheer nature of their work. “They get into situations where it’s life and death.”

Osborne’s emphasis on the teamwork aspect was apparent throughout the recent interview, when he expressed a desire several times to talk more about Mount Airy firefighters’ mission than himself. “My focus is not on me — it’s on this department and the city.”

The new chief’s goals for the unit include trying to increase its level of services to the public and allowing members to be more involved in the community. So far he has been trying to learn the locations of Mount Airy’s streets and handling other preliminary functions.

“Just like every fire department, we need trucks and stations,” he said of major capital expenditures that are hard to achieve in a tough economic time.

“I know our budget situation,” Osborne added. “It’s tough on everybody, but we’re going to provide what we should provide regardless of budgets. We’re going to provide fire protection for our citizens. You have to get creative on some things.”

One characteristic that is evident with Chip Osborne — similar to the passion exhibited by a leader on the football field — is his desire to guide the Mount Airy Fire Department into the future in an effective manner.

“When I do leave, when that time comes, I want to leave the city in a better position than it is now,” Osborne said. “I don’t want anything to be negative.”

Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com or at 719-1924.