Faustin F. Callagy was a firefighter. When he joined Engine 71 in the Bronx in 1958 he followed his grandfather, John, in that same firehouse and his great-uncle, Martin, in the career that suited him best. He got to help people and do it while hauling hose lines up tenement stairs and leading with the nozzle into fire and smoke. The Bronx was burning in those days but Faustin was on duty. He finished his career at Engine 306, Bayside, Queens, driving the engine and the occasional chief, but he fought fires.

Whether in his firefighting or in his athleticism, he did not brag. Even though he was a skilled short-stop and had a rare grace in swinging a bat you might have to see it for yourself or hear a third party, like his wife, Joan, tell the tale. Only as the years went on did he allow himself to tell stories that revealed he knew how good he was in the things that he did. He knew because he saw the world straight, and he could bring that vision to the people around him, his wife, his sons, Stephen, Paul, Chris, and Frank, his daughters-in-law Agnes, Carolyn, Margaret, and Anne and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Faustin and his brothers, Jack and Joe, were born in the Bronx to Helen Kelleher and Faustin Callagy and he spent his early years in the household of his beloved grandparents, Jeremiah Kelleher and Nora McCarthy Kelleher. While Helen worked hard in retail, Jeremiah taught him to play checkers and Nora walked him to school and sent him to do her shopping without a list, a feat which Faustin noted with pride all his life. And he chuckled at Joan's tease that there were very few items on those lists.

Joan Van Nuis was the love of his life. They met at 12 years old on East 164 th Street and Joan said she always knew they would get married. Faustin attended Marist Prep in Esopus, a pivotal boost for his sense of himself, but spent the summers back in the Bronx. They kept their friendship and fell in love. They married on January 6, 1951 and honeymooned in Rosendale, in the Hudson Valley near Esopus. He credited her with every good thing that came to him after their marriage and throughout those 65 years he loved her for her lively mind and beautiful voice.

Firefighter though he was, Faustin is not understood unless you also know that he delivered papers and groceries, manned a candy store, sorted mail, loaded cars on the railroad, cleaned rugs, washed windows, was a bank teller, vacuum salesman, and insurance inspector. As he said, how could he get to the Giants' games at the Polo Grounds unless he worked? From childhood he watched from the bleachers as some of the greats did their magic. And, yes, in 1951 he was there when Bobby Thompsonhit Ralph Branca's pitch for a home run.

In 1965 the family moved to Suffolk County. He lived in suburbia but he commuted to work with the Fire Department until he retired in 1979. Then he joined his best friend, Ed Burke from FDNY Rescue 3, as an insurance inspector. He welcomed retirement and the chance to travel, and visit the children and grandchildren as they came. In 2001 he returned to the Hudson Valley, scene of his important days at Marist Prep. He always took joy in his family, in all its generations, and in their accomplishments.

He is survived by his sons and their spouses: Stephen and Agnes, Paul and Carolyn, Christopher and Margaret, Francis and Anne; grandchildren and spouses: Stephen and Teresa, Matthew and Tracey, and Sarah and Vinny; Malcolm and Rose; Conor and Ashley, Ronan and Christine, Nora and Stephen; Maeve, Shannon and Paul, and Fiona; and great-grandchildren: Charlotte, Aedan, Madelyn, Frankie, Art, Bella; Natalie and Darren; Landon and Sadie; Bridget and Paul Brendan; Siobhan; and Ciaran. Finally, he loved his nieces and nephews, as they did him: Joan Gleason, Susan Leva, Ellen Hayes, Mary Anne Rebehn, Joseph, Gregory, Jacqueline Moore, and John. He was predeceased by his beloved wife, Joan, his brothers and their spouses, Jack and Bea, Joe and Ruth, nephew Douglas, and nieces Elizabeth and Barbara.

The family will receive friends on Monday, January 3, 2022 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Parmele, Auchmoody and Schoonmaker Funeral Home, 110 Fulton Avenue, Poughkeepsie, New York. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Martin de Porres Church, 118 Cedar Valley Road, Poughkeepsie, at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, January 4, 2022. Interment will follow at Calvary Cemetery, 62 LaGrange Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY.