Ceremony to Honor Assistant Chief Tessinear
Assistant Chief of Training, Wallace Keith Tessinear
Assistant Chief of Training Wallace Keith Tessinear, 55, died of occupational cancer. He was diagnosed with lymphoma in June 2018. He passed away 14 months later. On Nov. 27, 2019, the North Carolina Industrial Commission recognized his passing as a line-of-duty death.
Tessinear entered the department in 1991. He rose through the ranks and was appointed as a division chief in 2012.
He was appointed assistant chief in 2015, first assigned to Services, followed by the Office of the Fire Marshal where he served as the city fire marshal. He was later reassigned to the Training division. He had served more than 28 years at the time of his death.
Funeral services were held on Sept. 1, 2019, at the Chapel at Bright Funeral Home in Wake Forest, with burial at Clyde's Chapel Baptist Church Cemetery in Wendell on the same day.
He was survived by his wife Jessica (Whitley) Tessinear; daughter Hannah Brooke Tessinear; sister Kimberly Taylor (Matt), nephews Damon, Zachary, Luke and Mason Taylor; mother-in-law Judy Whitley; sisters-in-law Brenda Hales (Jeff) and their children Justin (Taylor) and Lauren; and Janice Whitley (David) and their children Heather, Erica and Lawrence.