Chris Wesley

Chris Wesley, 53, of rural Robinson, IL, passed away unexpectedly on December 10, 2025, at Crawford Memorial Hospital in Robinson. He was born in Robinson on October 9, 1972, and grew up in Flat Rock, where his pace was set early by three-wheelers and four-wheelers, mushroom hunts every year, and sports that filled much of his childhood. He graduated from Robinson High School in 1990, proud to have run track and played football with the team that made a playoff run in 1989.

If you knew Chris, you knew he was blunt. Not cruel, not careless, just direct. He said what he meant, and you never had to guess where you stood with him. He had a gift for reading people, too. Give him fifteen seconds, and he had a pretty good idea what you were made of. That clarity shaped everything about him: how he led, how he protected, how he worked, how he loved.

And Chris loved hard. He didn't say it all the time, but he showed it constantly. He worked two jobs for years so Joy could be home with the kids. He planned vacations down to the restaurant stops and the exact time they would eat along the way. He showed up. A race, a school event, it didn't matter: if he could be there, he was there. His family knew what it meant to be secure because Chris was near. Joy never felt unsafe when he was around. He was their rock and their protector.

Chris was also the kind of dad who made childhood feel like a place you could live in. The hill on their property became a launchpad for "Redneck Slip'n'Slides," kids flying down the foam board with a ramp at the end and a splashdown (that sometimes ended in the pool and sometimes...didn't). If the kids wanted something, Chris would build it. He was never afraid of work, especially if it meant creating fun for his kids and their friends.

Chris could fix anything. He learned mechanical work alongside his grandpa, Wilfred Maxwell, and it stuck. He became an incredible mechanic, the kind who could look at a problem, think for a moment, and then make it right. He worked as a service technician at Wiseman's Pontiac before going full-time with the fire department, and no matter where he was, he stayed the same kind of worker: fast, meticulous, and almost impossible to keep up with. He had a way of getting an unbelievable amount done while still keeping everything tidy. Even his property bore evidence of this. He would rotate the direction he mowed the yard, north to south, east to west, then diagonal, because in Chris's world, details mattered.

He lived his entire life like a man on a mission. He woke up thinking about what needed to be done, how to do it better, and how to make sure the people he loved were covered. His mind was always working, always mapping, always improving. If something mattered to him, it got his full attention, and it got done right. That same meticulous drive is part of why he was such a force in fire service.

Chris started as a volunteer with the Robinson Fire Department in January 2001 and went full-time in April 2005. Through his work, he earned an associate's degree from Frontier Community College. He became the RFD Captain in 2014 and would become the Robinson Township Fire Protection District Assistant Fire Chief in January of 2025. He wore Fire Number 502, and he wore it with pride.

The public saw the calls, the uniforms, the trucks, and the courage. The people closest to him saw the heart behind it. For Chris, fire service was never just a job. It was a calling that reached straight into the lives of families, neighbors, and local students. One of the clearest examples of that was the fire safety program he started in 2014. The idea came while helping his daughter, Ashton, with a school report on Ashes of Roses, and Chris turned that spark into something lasting. He and his fellow firefighters began working with 8th-grade classes, teaching students to build a home fire plan, think through exits, and understand where smoke detectors and extinguishers should be. Hundreds of students completed plans, and so far, six students have saved their homes because of what he set in motion. That is the kind of legacy Chris leaves behind: practical, protective, and still actively helping people even now.

Outside the station, Chris was the same person: full-speed, fully invested. ESPN was on every morning, and sports were always close, especially the Dallas Cowboys. He and his brother, Jess, made more than a few trips to watch the boys in silver and blue, and he followed the St. Louis Cardinals with the same steady sense of loyalty. When he wanted to unplug, he rode side-by-sides with his family and friends, including trips to Brimstone, TN, and those trips bore his fingerprints. The routes were planned, the stops were timed, and as soon as one was over, he was already thinking about the next.

That same love of planning showed up in the way he made life fun for the people around him. In the 1990s, he had an infamous "bachelor pad," known for cookouts, parties, and the kind of hosting that made people feel like they belonged. Chris took pride in cooking, and his chili became legend, especially the firehouse batch that was so hot they still haven't forgiven him for scorching their mouths! He loved spicy food because he loved the challenge, and for him, it was never quite hot enough. He also loved craft beer, chased breweries, tracked the thousands he tried on an app, and even experimented with brewing his own. And in the middle of all of that life, he still worked hard. From 2013 to 2025, he held a side job at Flat Rock Telephone Company until becoming Assistant Chief, and he counted it an honor to work alongside his best friend, Vince. In the summers, Austin worked with them, too, which Chris loved.

After all, for Chris, the best parts of life were not the schedules or the stats. They were the people. His family. His friends. His crew. His kids and their friends, who always felt welcome. Chris cared for what was his, and he cared even more fiercely for who was his. That was the measure of his life, and he lived it well.

He married Joy Hoke on March 30, 1996, and she survives. He is also survived by his children, Ashton Wesley and Austin Wesley; his father & step-mother, Pill & LuAnn Wesley; his step-father, Kevin Culp; his brothers, Jess & wife Jodi Wesley and Andy Wesley; his sister, Kaycee Culp; his nieces, Maci Scherer, Quinn Wesley, and Keah Wesley; his nephew, Nicklaus Scherer; his grandfather, Wilfred Maxwell; as well as several cousins, aunts, and uncles. He was preceded in death by his mother, Janet Elaine Maxwell-Culp; and by his grandparents, Pete & Jean Wesley and Lavene Maxwell.

A time of visitation will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Monday, December 15th, at the Robinson Civic Center. A firefighter walk-through will begin at 1:00 p.m., followed by a funeral service officiated by Pastor J.D. Branson. For those unable to attend, a live stream of the service will be available at https://www.goodwinefuneralhomes.com/live-stream/live-stream. In lieu of flowers, his family requests that memorials be made to the "Robinson Fire Department" to be used for public education and fire prevention. Memorial envelopes will be available at the Civic Center. Burial will be in the Jones Cemetery.

The Goodwine Funeral Home in Robinson is assisting the family at this time.