Longtime Hillsboro firefighter Dave Lowell died Tuesday at age 70.

Lowell retired after 33 years from the Hillsboro Fire Department, and he served as the assistant fire chief for most of that time.

He was a lifelong member of the Hillsboro Church of Christ, as well as a member of the Hillsboro Lions Club and Hillsboro Planning Commission.

Lowell was a volunteer for NOVA and the Ohio Crisis Response Team where he assisted with the New Jersey Victim Assistance Center after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack, according to obituary information from Turner Funeral Homes. He also went to New Orleans to help after Hurricane Katrina and assisted in many other disasters.

Lowell also spent many years playing Santa Claus for various events across the region. In a 2011 Times-Gazette profile, Lowell said, “I can walk over to some kid who doesn’t want to sit on Santa’s lap and take pictures wherever they feel comfortable, because Santa Claus is the thing they love on TV, but they’re scared to death of in real life.”

He added, “I’m having a great time… It is so much fun to watch kids run around the corner and see them stop like a calf rope just hit them, then turn and run the other way.”

Former Hillsboro Mayor Betty Bishop, whose tenure coincided with much of Lowell’s service as a firefighter, said Thursday that Lowell was “an outstanding man.”

“He had a heart as big as gold,” said Bishop, mentioning his volunteer work when disasters struck anywhere in the nation. She said his coworkers shared the same attributes. “That entire bunch of guys he worked with were all the same way,” she said. She offered “deepest condolences, peace and closure” for Lowell’s family.

Lowell is survived by his wife of 40 years, Theresa Lowell, whom he married on Sept. 3, 1977 at the Hillsboro Church of Christ. He is also survived by two children, four grandchildren, and many other family members.

Visitation will be held from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. on Sunday Oct. 22, at the Hillsboro Church of Christ. Funeral services will take place at 11 a.m. on Monday Oct.23, at the Hillsboro Church of Christ. The Turner & Son Funeral Home is serving the family. See his full obituary elsewhere in The Times-Gazette.