St. Petersburg Fire Rescue · District Chief

Robert
Thomas
Nugent

May 21, 1970 December 6, 2025

Thirty-one years with the City of St. Petersburg. Twenty-nine of them on the rescue. A husband, a father to two boys, a brother, a son — and the chief his crews measured themselves against.

Give in his name His story
District Chief Rob Nugent, smiling, in a St. Petersburg Fire Rescue cap and sunglasses under a bright sky.
Emblem of the Robert T. Nugent Fire Academy Scholarship at St. Petersburg College: a gold and red Maltese cross bearing a fire helmet, axe, ladder and hydrant.
Chief. Twenty-nine years on the rescue.

Always the first one in.
Always the last one out.

— from his obituary, December 2025

What his name does now

Two initiatives, both
built to outlast us.

Karen and Jim Harte — Rob’s mother and step-father — established and funded both: an award inside the department he gave his career to, and an endowment at the college that trains the next people to walk through that door. One recognizes the standard he held. The other pays for someone to reach it, and it is the one the family is asking people to grow.

The Nugent family - Rob, Kelly, Luke and Brady - dressed in white and walking hand in hand through a mountain meadow.
The Nugent’s - Rob, Kelly, Luke and Brady

01 / Inside the department

The DC Rob Nugent Award for Excellence

Three $1,500 awards presented at the St. Petersburg Fire Rescue annual banquet, one to each shift, to members who hold the standard Rob held. Established and funded by Karen and Jim Harte, the entire family reads every nomination together and selects the winners.

Nominations are internal to the department — only Division Chiefs and District Chiefs may submit one, and Chief Ganci validates every claim before it reaches the family. Generic endorsements are not considered, which is exactly how Rob would have wanted it.

The award & its process

02 / Outside the department

The Robert T. Nugent Endowment at St. Petersburg College

Established and funded by James and Karen Harte, opened on Rob's birthday with a $25,000 gift, plus $2,000 set aside immediately for four smaller awards so students would not have to wait a year for help with the out-of-pocket costs nobody budgets for — boots, books, exam fees, gas to clinicals.

The principal stays invested; the earnings fund awards in perpetuity. Every gift makes the annual award larger, permanently. This is where the family is asking gifts to go — the department award is already funded.

How the endowment works

Who it reached

This is who showed up.

The first awards from the endowment went to fire academy students at St. Petersburg College. Two of the 2026 recipients recorded this for the family.

The 2026 recipients of the Robert T. Nugent Endowment.
Give to the endowment More about the endowment
Save the date announcement for the St. Petersburg Fire Rescue Annual Banquet on Saturday, January 23, 2027 at the St. Pete Yacht Club.

Save the date

The first awards
are presented here.

Event
St. Petersburg Fire Rescue Annual Banquet
Date
Saturday, January 23, 2027
Where
St. Pete Yacht Club
Theme
Service and Sacrifice

Three members — one from A shift, one from B, one from C — will be called up and handed a plaque with Rob's name on it. The Nugents and the Hartes will be in the room. Luke and Brady will be on the stage.

The tribute wall

You worked a shift with him.
Tell us about it.

Calls, stories, the thing he said that you still repeat. His sons are going to read this one day, and the small things are the ones they will not otherwise get to hear.

Share a memory