BCCRS Press Release

Contact: Assistant Chief Peter Morris
Public Information Officer
(301) 973-7363

Local Fire/Rescue Leader, Life-Long Bethesda Resident Dies

For Immediate Release:

Members of the Bethesda Chevy Chase Rescue Squad and the Glen Echo Volunteer Fire Department are deeply saddened by the sudden loss of Chief George David Pitts Jr., a leader who committed his life to the fire/rescue service and to helping others. Chief Pitts was a Life Member and weekday supervisor at the B-CC Rescue Squad, in addition to currently serving as the volunteer Fire Chief at the Glen Echo Fire Department. He died in his sleep at his home Saturday March 11th. Only forty-seven years old, George D. Pitts Jr. leaves behind a wife and young child.

Chief Pitts is credited with supervising the weekday operations of the Rescue Squad for the past fourteen years, through the dynamic growth of Bethesda from a bedroom community to a bustling business center. During this time, the number of weekday emergency responses doubled for the Rescue Squad.

In addition to his role as the weekday supervisor, Chief Pitts was well known for his extremely active volunteer participation at B-CC Rescue Squad and Glen Echo Fire Department. He joined the Rescue Squad as a volunteer in 1977 at the age of twenty-four. During this volunteer tenure, Pitts was not only recognized for responding to the most emergency calls in a calendar year, but also for collecting the most money in the Rescue Squad's annual door-to-door fundraising campaign. Before accepting the full-time paid position as the weekday supervisor, Pitts rose to the rank of volunteer Assistant Chief at B-CC.

At the time of his death, Pitts was also serving as the volunteer Fire Chief of the Glen Echo Fire Department. Pitts started his volunteer service to his neighborhood Fire Station in 1992, when he was recruited by the Conduit Road Fire Board, which oversees the Glen Echo Fire Department. He joined the ranks of the community-based Fire Department as an Assistant Chief. For the last three years, he served as the volunteer Fire Chief, ensuring that an actual resident of the community directed the operations of the local volunteer fire/rescue department.

Universally, the impressions George D. Pitts left on his volunteer colleagues and those he worked with were that he genuinely cared about people, always displayed warmth, and always wanted to teach others the right way.

Pitts was born on February 14, 1953. He was a lifelong resident of the Sumner neighborhood and graduated from Walt Whitman High School in 1971. In 1986 he met Diane DeLawter, a fellow B-CC Rescue Squad volunteer, and the couple wed in 1991. His true joy in life came from his twenty-three month old son David and wife Diane, who is expecting their second child next month. In addition to Diane and David, Chief Pitts is survived by his sister Barbara Lang, of Bethesda.

Friends may call at St. George's Greek Orthodox Church, 7701 Bradley Boulevard, Bethesda, Maryland, on Tuesday, March 14, from 4 to 8 p.m. where services will be held at 8 p.m. A Trisagion prayer service and fire/rescue memorial will be held at the church on Wednesday, March 15, at 10 a.m. with interment following at Parklawn Memorial Park and Gardens, 12800 Veirs Mill Road near Aspen Hill Road in Rockville. Immediately thereafter, a reception will be held in the Rose Room of the Bethesda Chevy Chase Rescue Squad, 5020 Battery Lane in Bethesda.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the "George David Pitts Jr. Family Memorial Fund", in care of the Sequoia National Bank of Maryland, Bank, 4801-A Montgomery Lane, Bethesda MD, 20814.