Here is the obituary you requested for the following person: DODSON RICHARD ERNEST born: 05/04/1918 M CALIFORNIA died: KERN 12/30/1979 Tehachapi? age: 61 yrs requested by: _knvstone@charter.net_ (mailto:knvstone@charter.net) (mailto:knvstone@charter.net) The Bakersfield Californian, January 2, 1980 Pg. B6 DODSON, Richard E. - Services will be conducted at 10:00 a.m. Thursday in the chapel of the J. W. Sams and Sons Funeral Home, Tehachapi for Mr. Richard E. Dodson, 61, of 508 E. 'F' St., Tehachapi who died December 30. The Reverend Robert Stevenson will officiate. Interment will be in the Tehachapi cemetery. Mr. Dodson was born in Bakersfield, he was a division chief of the Kern County Fire Department for 33 years, he retired in 1971. He was a member of the Board of Trustees for the Tehachapi School District from 1970 to 1976 serving as President the years of 1972 and 1873. He was secretary of the Kern County Fire Department Retired Employees Association. He was life member of CSFA. He was a member of the International Footprinters Chapter 8 of Bakersfield. He was a member of the Tehachapi High School Warriors Booster Club. Survivors include wife Beverly of Tehachapi; son, William R. of Tehachapi; daughters, Linda Dodson of Bakersfield, Judy Moss of Rosemead and Patricia Dodson of Bakersfield; brothers Robert Bollinger of Bakersfield, Walter Dodson of Sacramento, Max Dodson of Placerville; sisters, Barbara McInernie of Tehachapi, Doris Varta of Bakersfield, Pat Randall and Lora Gilmore of Sacramento; father P. A. Bollinger of Bakersfield. The family requests donation be made to the Tehachapi High School Athletic Fund in care of Gary Chilvis. Same paper, same day, page B2 R. E. Dodson Dies; Top State Fire Boss Richard E. Dodson, who retired as assistant county fire chief in 1971 and was of the state's leading fire bosses of forest and watershed blazes, has died. Services will be held in J.W. Sams and Sons Mortuary in Tehachapi at 10 a.m. Thursday. Dodson, who died in his home in Tehachapi Dec 30, was a member of the county Fire Department for 33 years and commanded the watershed and desert areas of East Kern. He was fire boss of the 1970 Rankin fire on Breckenridge Mountain in 1970, the largest fire in county history. He directed the campaign that saved thousands of acres of timber and television and communication repeaters and endangered by the Rankin Fire. Dodson was a consultant to other fire departments on fighting watershed fires through the use of backburning. Much of his reputation as a top rural firefighter was earned during the 1940s. Survivors include his wife, Beverley; a son, William Richard; three daughters, Patricia and Linda Dodson, and Judy Moss of Rosemead; his father, T. A. Bollinger, and seven brothers and sisters. Sharon Kern Co. Volunteer