Rob Duggan was named chief of the Gilbert Fire and Rescue Department at the June 28 Town Council meeting, replacing the retiring Jim Jobusch. Duggan started on the job July 11. The Gilbert Independent sat down with Duggan at the Public Safety Training Facility for a question-and-answer session shortly after he started. The conversation has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Gilbert Independent: Tell us a little bit about who you are.
Duggan: “Well I grew up in Phoenix, Moon Valley. My dad moved us here for work like everyone else. I was 7 when we moved here the first year. … On weekends and summers, we just spent it on our bikes riding in the desert doing different things, having fun out there. Our parents had no clue where we were, but we always showed up before the lights turned on doing that kind of stuff. … We didn't have Google back then. Back as kid, it was ‘OK, what if we do this? OK, we'll try that.’ And well, maybe it didn't go well, but you learned real quick what was a good idea and a bad idea. So that was kind of a pretty typical upbringing back then.
