Warren mourns a good friend

Services for Matt Harris, 38, attract thousands in massive show of support

By Ted Hayes
Posted 9/18/18

Warren mourned this week as members of the town’s fire fighting and police community said good-bye to one of their most beloved members.

Matthew Marcellus Harris, 38, known as a gentle giant who …

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Warren mourns a good friend

Services for Matt Harris, 38, attract thousands in massive show of support

Posted

Warren mourned this week as members of the town’s fire fighting and police community said good-bye to one of their most beloved members.

Matthew Marcellus Harris, 38, known as a gentle giant who won friends with his positive energy, laugh and good nature, passed away unexpectedly last Tuesday, Sept. 11. A 1998 Mt. Hope High School graduate who joined the fire department as a teenager, he was a police and fire dispatcher and a lieutenant with Rough and Ready Engine 5.

Lt. Harris was one of the departments’ most popular members, as evidenced by the show of grief and love that poured out in the days after his death, from complications following surgery. His wake, held Sunday afternoon at Smith Funeral and Memorial Services, drew well over 1,000 friends, including hundreds of the Warren Fire Department’s current and inactive members, and police officers who were able to attend. Police and fire officials from Bristol and beyond also came out, as did members of the Warren Town Council and other dignitaries from Warren and beyond.

Department members and hundreds of others paid their respects again at his funeral Monday morning it St. Mary of The Bay Church. His firefighters’ uniform, with pants, boots and jacket stitched with “Harris” on the back, was draped across the back of Engine 5 as a small procession drove to the church’s rear entrance from Water Street and later, after the service, to the South Burial Ground.

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A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.