William Steve Law, 67: Retired Cobb County firefighter

By Rick Badie

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

William Law never smoked, but he still contracted fatal lung cancer.

Family photo William Steve Law, 67, of Smryna, was a Cobb County firefighter. He died Friday.

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It was a fate that Duncan Bohannon, his 8-year-old grandson, took hard. He asked his mother, Jeanne Law Bohannon of Cherokee County, a question.

"Why did grandpa even want to be a firefighter?

Mrs. Bohannon, one of Mr. Law's two daughters -- shared a story.

A year after Mr. Law joined the Cobb County Fire Department, he rescued a  3-year-old boy from a burning building. He performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The child lived.

"I told my son that story," his daughter said, "and I told him that there were so many other people that his grandpa had saved. That's what firemen do: Save lives. It comforted him to know that there is somebody walking around that grandpa saved."

Mr. Law had been in perfect health. He and Peggy, his wife of 39 years, took walks daily. He did push-ups and other exercises.

Last week, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. On Friday, William Steve Law of Smyrna died from complications of the disease at Cobb General. The funeral will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at First United Methodist Church in Smyrna. Carmichael Funeral Homes is in charge of arrangements.

A Marietta native, Mr. Law graduated from Osborne High. He worked in the family construction business before he became a firefighter in 1975. He spent his nearly 28-year career at stations No. 7, 9, 22 and 6.

From 1975 to 1980, Zahid Hussain of Smyrna worked with Mr. Law at station No. 7.

"He was a detail kind of guy," said Mr. Hussain, now retired. "He took a lot of measures before he sent any of his men into a building. Once he got in, he got the job done. Very punctual."

And he led by example, said Michael McDonough of Kennesaw, a retired firefighter who worked with Mr. Law at several stations.

"We never left a fire that rekindled," Mr. McDonough said. "We stayed. [Mr. Law] was not one to say, ‘This is how you do it.' You did it as he did it, and he was the one out front, leading the charge."

In 2003, Mr. Law retired as a lieutenant. In retirement, he still kept an emergency kit in his truck. Just in case.

As a teenager, his daughter recalled him pulling over to help an elderly female driver who had struck a telephone pole. The driver appeared unshaken; Mr. Law still stopped.

"He said it was the right thing to do," his daughter said, "and he always lived that life."

For relaxation, Mr. Law was a woodcarver and blacksmith. He made swords and other props for the annual Stone Mountain Highland Games and Scottish Festival. He was a Marine Corps reservist during the Vietnam War.

Finally, Mr. Law was at peace with the fate his profession handed him.

"The rest of us were all upset," his daughter said, "but he was glad [the cancer] was from this rather than anything else. He was a spiritual person, and he said it was his duty to serve, and that he wouldn't change a thing. He spent his whole life saving others."

Survivors other than his wife and daughter include another daughter, Shelia Law Ossege of Powder Springs; three sisters, Barbara Conrad of East Point, Fla.; Lynn Baker of Marietta and Margaret Herndon of Taylorsville; two brothers, John Law and Michael Law, both of St. George Island, Fla.; and two grandsons.