By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, August 2, 1991
The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03
For Ron Calissi, a glimpse of mortality when his van collided with a truck nine months ago did not change his life goals: It taught him to pursue them with more vigor.
“They said I died twice, but I don’t remember,” said the 44-year-old director of the Bergen County Police and Fire Academy.
Known for charismatic and energetic leadership at a post he has been reappointed to annually for the past 12 years, Calissi says he is now even more dedicated to his twin goals: preparing his academy students as well as possible, and continuing on a path of personal and professional growth.
“The rudiments start here,” he said of the academy. “That’s our job, to provide a climate conducive to learning modern approaches to solving problems.”
In firefighting education, for instance, the academy is designing a computerized fire-training burn building that he said would be the most advanced in the world.
Another Calissi goal is to make an associate degree the minimum requirement to become a police officer in Bergen County. The state standard is a high school diploma or GED (general equivalency diploma).
The Leonia Police Department requires a bachelor’s degree for entry-level officers, the only one in the county with such a standard.
Calissi is trying to create an environment to make the associate-degree goal a reality. Under an agreement with Ramapo College and Bergen Community College that would go into effect this fall or spring, Bergen County Police and Fire Academy students would be encouraged to take courses toward an associate degree in social science and bachelor’s degree in government, with a minor concentration in sociology.
“This goes to the mission of the academy, which is to professionalize the public-safety community through the offering of higher-education programs that are college-accredited, thereby indirectly raising the standards to the level they should be at,” Calissi said.
People in law enforcement credit Calissi with invigorating a moribund Bergen County Police and Fire Academy when he took over as director 12 years ago. Student enrollment rose from 2,000 then to about 15,000 students today, representing more than 50 percent of the state’s annual public-safety trainees.
Ridgefield Police Chief Lars N. Oyen, a 1967 academy graduate, said the school Calissi now heads is a huge improvement over the one from which he graduated.
“One of the first things that a senior officer said to me was, `Forget everything they taught you at the academy. Now, I’m going to show you how to do it,” Oyen said. “He was right. It was different. It didn’t have the scholastic value that [the academy] has today.”
On a personal level, Calissi, a Franklin Lakes resident, will continue rehabilitating his left leg, which was shattered in the Nov. 8, 1990, accident.
Returning to the academy for a meeting that day, Calissi’s van veered into the path of oncoming traffic as he avoided a vehicle turning from his lane. He collided with a utility truck coming from the opposite direction.
Along with the shattered bones, Calissi broke seven ribs and required transfusion of 15 units of blood.
He was back on the job 30 days after the accident. Although he still undergoes physical therapy and faces further surgery, doctors have told him to expect a complete recovery.
Calissi plans to continue studying toward a doctorate in public management to go with his masters of business administration degree, law degree, and certification as a public manager and financial planner.
He also will continue to teach graduate human-resource management and administrative-law courses at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Keywords: BERGEN COUNTY; POLICE; FIREMAN; SCHOOL; OFFICIAL; MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; VICTIM; MAHWAH; RON CALISSI
Caption: PHOTO – STEVE AUCHARD / THE RECORD – Ron Calissi in front of a fire simulator at the police and fire academy. He says the school aims to “professionalize the public-safety community.”
ID: 17351342 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)
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