KALAMAZOO – Marty Myers, a fire marshal for the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety for 22 years, is the new manager of the Southwest Michigan Fire Science Program based at Kalamazoo Valley Community College.
He replaces Wayne Kitchen, a retired chief of the Portage Fire Department who had held the KVCC post since July of 2003 and recently retired from those duties.
Myers, who has been teaching fire-science courses at KVCC, Kellogg Community College and Southwest Michigan College and conducted law-enforcement training courses for almost three decades, joined the Kalamazoo department in 1975 as a police officer.
After a two-year stint as a crime-lab technician, he began his career as a fire marshal in 1985 and has investigated nearly 2,000 fires. He has been called to testify as an expert witness in district- and circuit-court trials.
A 1974 graduate of Albion College where he majored in international relations, Myers moved on to Michigan State University and enrolled in its program in criminal justice. He added to his credentials a degree in fire administration at Kellogg in 1982.
Joining KVCC in the consortium that trains students in the fire sciences in Southwest Michigan and northern Indiana are Glen Oaks Community College, Kellogg Community College, Lake Michigan College, and Southwestern Michigan College. KVCC serves as the administrative host for the program and confers all fire-science certificates and degrees.
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