This article from the Hillsborough Beacon ran a few months back. I would have run it sooner but I am intermittently inept. Doris is a special friend of this website and we are very proud of her.



Another First: Flatley Honored for 25 Years of Service

By Audrey Levine

Staff Writer



Doris Flatley, of Oxford Place, is used to breaking glass ceilings.



Working in the high-tech world of 1959 as a semi-conductor engineer for the David Sarnoff Research Center in West Windsor, where she, in simple terms, worked on processes to make computer chips, she often was the only woman in the lab.



And as the first female member of Hillsborough Fire Company No. 2, she often is the only woman on the fire truck.



Last month, Ms. Flatley again was setting an example: She was the first woman honored by the fire company for 25 years of active service, where she is still one of just two women firefighters.



"I can't believe it's been 25 years," she said. "I am a life member."



Ms. Flatley said she remembers attending the first Fireman's Fair in 1981 and seeing that the sponsoring group, Hillsborough Fire Company No. 2, was recruiting members. When her husband, Donald Scher, said he would join, she said she would, too.



"Then I chickened out," she said with a laugh. "But I met all the people involved and was very impressed with them. They were putting their lives on the line for no money, and I figured I could fit in with them."



Ms. Flatley said that holding the distinction of being the first woman to join the company wasn't really a surprise to her because she was an engineer and used to being in a field without many women. "I expected some flack," she said. "But I was used to working with men, so that was a great help. After a while, they came around."



After all the time spent with the fire company, Ms. Flatley said, she is most proud of the work done outside the company itself, as she has served as sergeant-at-arms and secretary with the Board of Fire Commissioners and serves in the State Health Advisory Council, which works with the state fire commissioners to ensure helath and safety of firefighters and all citizens.



"I am most proud of these things that have grown out of the company," she said. "These are the most important."



Aside from these committees, Ms. Flatley said, she is also involved in the county's Fire Watch program, which works with juveniles who experment with fire. She said they work with children who might be setting fires, to evaluate them and provide the necessary help.



This work, Ms. Flatley said, stems from her own experience with fire when she was a child.



"When she was six years old, she said, she found herself trapped in her home in Newark with her mother and brother after a fire was set by a six-year-old neighbor. "This is why it's so important to work with juveniles," she said. "We are helping kids get out of situations like this."

Way to go Doris... Congrats :^)

Kudos to our FRIEND Doris... well deserved...