The last day of Capt. Ike Brissey’s life was spent doing the same thing he’d been doing nearly every day of his adult life.

Brissey, deputy director of Anderson County Emergency Services, spent Tuesday finishing his year-long work on planning the Upstate’s role in a statewide disaster response training exercise, said Taylor Jones, who is the director of the same division.

At 64, Brissey died at his home early Wednesday.

Jones’ eyes glistened with tears as he talked about Brissey on Wednesday, standing at the scene of a fire at the old Shaw Industries plant on Masters Boulevard.

The scene itself was one that reminded Jones of Brissey’s dedication and love for public safety, firefighting and for his community.

“His first love was being a firefighter,” Jones said. “The entire operation that you see here today is a tribute to Ike Brissey. He was a team builder and was dedicated to all the emergency services agencies in Anderson County.”

Brissey died of cardiac arrest around 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. Wednesday, Anderson County Coroner Greg Shore said. Shore said Brissey suffered from advanced heart disease and recently was having trouble with sleep apnea.

A dedicated church member, Brissey was the husband to Diane Brissey and a father to three children, two daughters and one son. He was a native of the Upstate.

Brissey’s most recent post was as second in command with the county’s emergency services division. But he’s been serving the county in some way since 1982.

For 28 years, he served as a volunteer firefighter with the Hopewell fire station in northern Anderson County. He was the station’s chief for six of those years and in 1989 he was Anderson County Fireman of the Year.

In the same period, the Furman University graduate also served as president of the Anderson Area Chamber of Commerce for six years.

He was a co-founder for the Anderson Area Crime Stoppers in 1985 and for the Anderson Summer Soiree. He started the chamber’s Leadership Anderson, a program that is still going strong in its mission to develop new community leaders. He also helped start the Anderson Area Touchdown Club and served as a president of the Anderson City Rotary Club, according to Anderson County records.

“Today is a sad day in Anderson County,” said interim county administrator Rusty Burns. “Ike Brissey was an adoring husband, an adoring father, and a selfless, dedicated community servant. Although the county will fill his position, Ike Brissey can never be replaced.”

Truth was, serving his community was in Brissey’s blood.

His father, Mercer Brissey, was a firefighter at Greenville’s Wade Hampton station and he was a coroner for Greenville County, according to officials and a 1984 report published in the Anderson Independent Mail.

In that 1984 article, Ike Brissey said, “At the time, I wasn’t old enough to be involved in firefighting but even then I viewed it as a good community service. Now I really know how to value volunteer service.”

Those who knew him best couldn’t have agreed more Wednesday.

Anderson County Fire Chief Billy Gibson said Brissey was the kind of person who would take on a task and do it right. He was a dedicated leader, yet was humble and was rarely seen to be angry with anyone.

“This is not something we are going to get over quickly,” Gibson said. “He was so many things to so many people. In all the time I’ve known Ike, I’d never seen him get upset with anybody. You could tell, sometimes, that he was overwhelmed. But he was always kind.”

That positive attitude was always present despite having suffered through several tragedies in his life, friends said, including loosing his 18-year-old sister when a drunken driver hit her car on Interstate 85 and later his father in a homicide in Greenville.

Tommy Dunn, the Anderson County Council chairman who is a veteran volunteer firefighter, said he’s known Brissey for at least 25 years. He said Brissey’s father was also a law enforcement officer in Greenville.

“He loved this community,” Dunn said. “Ike was always upbeat and positive. If he recognized you were down, he tried to cheer you up.”

Taylor Jones said Brissey was a “team builder.” Even when the two last talked at 10:15 p.m. Tuesday, Brissey was excited about his work on the training exercise that will help the military and the state’s public safety agencies prepare for a possible major disaster in the state.

“He built coalitions for success. He was a servant to the people,” Jones said. “It wasn’t a job for Ike; it was a lifestyle.”