NEW HAVEN – Whether he’s helping a student with schoolwork or resuscitating a patient, Ray Mugno, 41, is always helping others.
Mugno, a statistics professor at Southern Connecticut State University and father to his two daughters, 8 and 5, juggles full-time teaching at the university and part-time volunteering for Company 8 of the Wallingford Fire Department.
“I’m just finishing my fifth year as a volunteer firefighter,” said Mugno.
At an earlier age, Mugno declared his passion for helping others outweighs a hefty paycheck.
“I could have gotten a job right out of grad school making twice what I’m making here, but I don’t know if I would have been any happier. Actually, I know I wouldn’t have been happier,” said Mugno.
Mugno’s passion for teaching allows him to put food on the table and school supplies into his two daughters’ backpacks, while it also feeds his appetite for aiding others.
“His door was always open,” said former student Neil Napolitano, “and he would be willing to help his students with anything they needed help with even if it wasn’t his class or wasn’t math related.”
Firefighting, Mugno’s other passion, fills his appetite for adrenaline, where his idea of having fun means running around, plugging in sprinkler systems during a summertime drill or stampeding through a burning building in the event of a live burn reenactment.
“There are some drills that you definitely want to go to,” said Mugno. “We have what you call ‘live burns.’ It’s a great work out, you’re hauling stuff up and down stairs, there’s a fire going, there’s smoke everywhere, etc. It’s an adrenaline rush.”
While being a volunteer firefighter and a full-time professor has sculpted Mugno into a committed father and popular local figure, it has also earned him the reputation of a reliable worker.
“If you need him for something, he’s there,” said Chief William Celata of the Company 8 fire station. “If I need something done, he just goes and does it. You don’t have to second-guess him. You can depend on his work.”
Having experience with a busy schedule, Mugno also teaches a first year experience class geared toward helping freshman with time management. His favorite activity is to have students take rocks of different sizes and place them in a jar so that everything fits.
“If you don’t put the big rocks in first, there’s no way you’re going to get everything in. I take care of my family first, this job (teaching) comes first,” said Mugno.
Mugno is always improving himself. As a certified EMR (Emergency Medical Respondent), he is required to renew his skills and knowledge.
“I have to take a refresher course every three years and then take a test to make sure that my skills are still up to par,” said Mugno.
Mugno invites the busy schedule, another trait he discovered at a young age.
Having patrolled the boardwalk at his early job at Jones Beach State Park in Long Island, N.Y., he preferred the former, hands-on tasks instead, like picking up garbage and cleaning out dumpsters.
“To be honest,” said Mugno, “everyone wanted the job of just sitting on the boardwalk and telling people what to do and after about a week of doing that, I was eager to get back to cleaning out dumpsters cause at least I was doing something.”
Mugno said he is fortunate to have a family that understands his passion of being there for others as much as possible while also accepting the associated dangers.
His wife, a former firefighter, backs his decision to fight fires, but not everyone shares said feeling.
“My parents don’t like the fact that I’m a volunteer firefighter,” said Mugno. “My father-in-law, who probably had a lot to do with me joining, is a firefighter and he’s very pleased with it.”
But despite the smaller paycheck and the sacrificed time, Mugno loves what he does, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“You always need to look at what you’re doing and if it’s really what you want to be doing,” said Mugno. “Socrates said ‘the unexamined life is not worth living.’”
