Tom Francis is the new public information officer for Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department.
WHAT DOES YOUR JOB INVOLVE?
“My primary responsibility is to serve as a liaison to the media. It runs the gamut from incident coverage, such as responding to major fires to responding to media inquiries about internal departmental issues. Also, if there are any requests by schools for field trips, I coordinate the authorization.”
BEFORE HE LANDED THIS JOB
With the fire department for 13 years, Francis functioned as the audio-visual production specialist and as relief person for former public information officer Glenda Hopkins. In his previous post, Francis coordinated the camera talent, shot the film and ran the post-production equipment for training videos in their fully equipped studio. He also documented all major incident response by the department.
NOT JUST MONOPOLY MONEY
Some footage is sold to those companies who request the documentaries. “We made $100,000 over the last five years.”
WHAT’S REWARDING ABOUT THE WORK?
“The interaction with all the different individuals. I’m never selling anything; I’m responding to what people need. By virtue of the fact that we respond to emergency calls, we meet people in these dire circumstances. It’s an opportunity to interact with a multitude of different agencies and organizations.”
WHEN THE PRESSURE’S ON
“The most challenging aspect is to remain as calm as possible in the eye of the storm. The media at an incident site wants to receive as much information as possible as quickly as possible. I understand why they’re as antsy as they appear, but I can’t go to the incident commander in the middle of operations. I have to walk a tightrope between the two agendas.”
BORN
Hattiesburg, Miss.
THE HOMELAND
“When I was a toddler, my mom, who was full-blooded German, took me back to Germany, where I lived until I was 20. Following my first year in college in Berlin, she urged me to take advantage of my dual citizenship. I went to the U.S. Navy recruiting office and signed up to be a broadcast journalist. I was stationed on two different ships and spent the additional half of my time in Spain.”
ASSIMILATING INTO THE CULTURE
“German is my mother tongue. I had English and French as a foreign language. The military’s goal of all broadcast journalists is to sound alike, like we all come from the Midwest. They [his voice and dictation coaches] knocked out my accent. We can’t have people on the radio addressing sailors in a heavy German accent. I’m glad it happened that way because it allowed me to blend in nicely. In this country you can hear the inflection in someone’s voice [regardless of region] but the vocabulary is the same. In Germany, a northern German cannot understand a southern German if they are using their dialect. The great advantage of America is that it has this beautiful cohesiveness.”
MULTILINGUAL
In addition to German and English, Francis also speaks French fluently.
“Where I lived was close to the border of France. Everybody I grew up with all knew it [French]. Also we got it in school.”
AMERICAN SCHOOLING
The Navy was Francis’ ticket to a bachelor’s degree in history and communications from New York State University. He also has a master’s degree in management from Webster University.
WHY PURSUE THIS FIELD?
“What started it was that German radio stinks. As kids we would go away from the German-dominated FM radio to the AFN [Armed Forces Network] where we could find the Army and Air Force DJs. It had the best music. I would listen to the announcers and think it sounded like fun. I said, ‘I want to do that.’”
HOW TO MAKE YOUR PARENTS MAD
Even though he was valedictorian of his college class, Francis opted to attend a Jacksonville Jaguars game instead of his own graduation. “I’m a sports nut. I actively play soccer and tennis and I am a member of the firefighter Olympic soccer team. I love hockey, football, baseball, everything.”
ROCKING IN HIS DOCKERS
“I play guitar. I love music and movies; I have huge collections. I used to be in a rock band, a cover band and I play a little piano. When you get older, it doesn’t look as good to do Pete Townsend windmills on a guitar so I’ve gone back to piano. You have to have lizard-skin pants to play guitar.”
CLUB HOPPING
“I am a member of the American Legion and the U.S. Tennis Association. I was a member of the John Tesh fan club that my wife signed me up for as a joke.”
BRADY-ESQUE FAMILY
Francis has two teenage daughters, Shannon and Carmen, from his second wife. His wife JoAnn has a son, Shawn, from a previous marriage. They live in Kensington Lakes in East Arlington. He is also an adjunct professor of radio and television at FCCJ.
— by Monica Chamness