A badge issued at Overland Park. A calling generations in the making.
Joseph Stapp, Sr. is a third-generation public servant. His grandfather and father served the Chesapeake City, Maryland fire department before him — it wasn't a career choice, it was inheritance.
A decade into his own service in Maryland, a medical call came in. The patient was his father — his mentor, the man who put him on this path. Joseph coded him on shift. It's the call that redirected everything that came after.
Today, that same commitment continues in his children — the family's fourth generation of public service. His son serves at KCFD, one daughter serves as a U.S. Navy Chief, his second daughter is a licensed social worker and mental health counselor, and his stepson is a firefighter in Centerton, Arkansas.
The fourth generation, in uniform
The same call that ran through three generations before them now carries forward in Joseph's children — in fire service, in the Navy, and in mental health care.
Third generation in the door
Joins as a volunteer firefighter in the same department where his father and grandfather served. His early career runs across the Maryland and Delaware line, and he attends the Delaware State Fire School to begin his professional career — where he later taught for 11 years. The surrounding stations and that first classroom set the foundation for everything to come.
The call that changed everything
A medical call for his own father. Joseph does the job he was trained to do, on the man who trained him to do it. It doesn't end his career — it redirects it.
Deputy Chief of Training
As Deputy Chief of Training, Joseph begins his full-time education career — spending five years leading the Training Division and teaching for the Arkansas Fire Training Academy, turning a decade of hard-earned experience into something the next generation could carry forward.
Badge 286
Hired by Chief Gary Wilson, Joseph serves in the department's Training Division — educating thousands of firefighters under the badge he'd retire with. Alongside that work, he becomes an instructor at Johnson County Community College in the Kansas City metro area — the heart of his education career and where he had his greatest impact, shaping recruit after recruit who would go on to protect the region for decades.
286 Training — and the next generation in uniform
Retirement didn't end the mission. It gave it a new badge number. And the family's service continues — a son at KCFD, a daughter serving as a U.S. Navy Chief, a second daughter working as a licensed social worker and mental health counselor, and a stepson serving as a firefighter in Centerton, Arkansas.
Some families pass down heirlooms. Ours passes down the call.
Before she can spell her own name, she already knows the sound of the engine and the weight of the helmet. Five generations of Stapps have answered when their neighbors needed them most — and watching the littlest one climb toward that same seat, you understand this was never a job. It's who we are, handed down one small hand at a time.
