McDevitt, Neil

Fascinated with firefighting as a child, he did not try becoming a firefighter because he felt his deafness would bar him. Graduated Gallaudet University 1996 and became a systems analyst for Prudential Financial. Taking his 2-year-old son on a visit to a fire station reawakened his interest, and in 2003 he succeeded in being accepted as a volunteer firefighter at the Fire Department of Montgomery Township in Pennsylvania.