Updated August 4th, 2025

After A Lifetime Of Serving Others, Fire Chief Eric Funkhouser Learned To Lean On His Community When Faced With A Brain Tumor — A Story of Resilience

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Eric Funkhouser, the fire chief from Bargersville, Indiana, has dedicated his life to serving others. A committed firefighter and community leader, Funkhouser’s journey took an unexpected turn when he was diagnosed with a grade II oligodendroglioma, a form of brain cancer. But even in the face of this diagnosis, his approach has remained grounded in the values he’s always lived by: service, family, and resilience.

Funkhouser’s story highlights the importance of community and the strength that comes from supporting one another. From his diagnosis over Labor Day weekend to his emotional return to duty, his journey has been a testament to his strength and humility.

“It’s really hard when you spend your whole life helping others, taking a backseat and letting other people do everything for you,” Funkhouser said.

His experience has taught him the importance of not only giving but receiving help, and that strength lies in the ability to lean on others when needed. “Just understand that you can’t do it alone,” Funkhouser says. “So lean into everybody around you and be willing to accept help — and take the help from people.”

Funkhouser’s story is a powerful reminder of the value of family, community, and finding purpose even in the hardest of times.

Moving forward, he doesn’t want to be defined by his cancer — but by what he can do after facing an ultimate challenge.

“I don’t go around every day telling people, ‘hey, I’ve got cancer.’ I don’t want to be defined by that,” he explains. “I want to be defined by the good works that I can do in life and what I can mean to other people — the example that I can set. My goal now is to be able to say, ‘I was able to do all these things with cancer.'”

After undergoing treatment in late 2024, Funkhouser’s time away from the fire station was coming to an end. He announced he was ready to make his big return to resume his role as fire chief in Bargersville, Indiana.

“We prayed a lot and I put my faith in God that we’d be able to get back,” he told “The Daily Journal.”

“Just being able to get back to some normalcy after all of this. Being in and out of the hospital so much, all the doctor’s appointments and therapy sessions we went through,” he said. “Not having to chase those down, and being able to come in and be back on a normal schedule has gone a long way in helping me get better quicker — to be able to get back doing what I enjoy most.”

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