Local books: Picking up and finishing what he started

San Jose firefighter Dudley Bynoe was known for finishing what he started. A man whose career was dedicated to putting out fires — the kinds that consumed both homes and lives — he also fought the kind, due to institutional racism, which threatened to jeopardize people’s lives and where they lived.

Some people said he was a bit of a social fire starter. He always countered that he was a social advocate. As such, his primary focus was on shifting inequities in thought and practice to bring more Black firefighters — women and men — into the field, which meant heightened awareness, breaking down barriers, and putting a firehose on abject racism.

Bynoe started his book in 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 crisis. For the first time, however, he didn’t finish his passion project. Although he had chronicled much of his story, Dudley Bynoe, 77, died suddenly on Christmas Day 2022. His heart gave out.

Linda Turner Bynoe (Courtesy photo)

His wife, CSU Monterey Bay Professor Emerita Linda Turner Bynoe, went on to edit and publish her husband’s book, “They Call Me Trusty: A Black Firefighter’s Fight for Social Justice.” (July 2025)

“It took me several months to get out of bed,” she said, “and then I took on the task to honor Dudley’s service by getting his book published.”

Only she could have accomplished this.

Dudley becomes Trusty

Raised by his grandmother, Bynoe had attended school on Long Island. He didn’t do well academically, yet when selecting officers for his class, the teacher nominated him as the “trustee” because he was the most honorable kid in the class. His friends teased him, but the name stuck, and he eventually changed the spelling to end with a y.

His closest friends called him Trusty, and they meant it. His fellow officers called him by his given name, Dudley.

Bynoe was the second Black firefighter to be hired in San Jose — at 27, which was quite a bit older than most who become a firefighter. He became an active member of the Santa Clara County Black Firefighters Association, an organization which started small and grew with time and conviction. He also became a founding member and leader of the International Association of Professional Black Firefighters, in time, building strength in numbers. In so doing, they launched training programs to prepare Black firefighters to pass the 100-question, four-part Firefighter Candidate test and write an effective résumé, to help position themselves for a better chance at being hired.

Then he began writing a book. Some call it a memoir, although his story is inclusive of the experiences of many. His goal may have been to chronicle the trajectory of his social justice movement. An ancillary message reveals the personal cost of becoming an agent of change, particularly when others are unwilling to back down. His fear was that all he and his comrades fought so hard to achieve could be lost in a generation. But perhaps not if he wrote it down.

Igniting sparks

Linda Turner met Dudley Bynoe at a party. She was a self-described precocious teenager who had attended Seaside High and graduated from Salinas High, and he was in the military, stationed at Fort Ord. She was 5-foot 7-inches tall. He was 6-5. She liked looking up to him and quickly became intrigued by and then enamored of this tall, dark, seemingly complicated man she found handsome. She was 17, and he was 21 when they eloped, their love superseding her parents’ concerns.

“We had a long time together,” she said, “and we were always best friends. We joined the Civil Rights Movement together, very much as Malcom X fans as opposed to Martin Luther King fans. We bonded over that and strived to become role models for our community.”

During that time, the couple also raised two daughters. Meanwhile, Turner Bynoe realized a long-held dream to pursue her advanced education. She achieved her doctorate of education from the University of San Francisco and served as adjunct research faculty in the department of Liberal Studies at Cal State Monterey Bay until her retirement in 2013. In the meantime, she and Jennifer Colby formed “Partners for the Advancement of Teaching,” currently a program of the 501c3 non-profit Action Council for Monterey County.

Finishing what he started

Linda Turner Bynoe was working on her own book about African American women who are artists, when her husband died, so she put it on pause to bring his book to press. She now is very much looking forward to bringing her own work to fruition.

“Dudley was diligent about maintaining his voice throughout the book,” she said, “and, in editing his work. I was conscious of this, as well. In his efforts to explain who he was, I included stories that would show future firefighters what happened and how we fixed situations — or how we couldn’t.”

The book offers a summary of different aspects of a firefighter’s experience Dudley Bynoe felt he needed to change, as told through a series of 10 stories that share his message through events he experienced.

“Dudley, out on a call, went into a fire and found children there,” she said. “He told of what that did to him. I wouldn’t run into a fire, but he did, even when he didn’t have to. Another story about Dudley is when he and friends were out together for the evening near a fire station as the alarm went off. So, he put on a helmet and jacket, and he jumped on the truck to help.”

Turner Bynoe also recalled an instance when her husband wasn’t feeling well, so he called the station to say he wasn’t coming into work. That afternoon, their kids, who had been playing outside, rushed in and said, “Dad! The kids next door are caught in a fire in their house, and they’re screaming and crying.” He jumped out of bed, dashed out the door without a jacket, and was able to get the children safely out of the house before it was consumed by fire.

“My husband talks about the mistakes he made, as well,” she said. “His way of doing things was unorthodox, and he was possessed of very strong language, which shows up in the book. He would ask himself, ‘Why do I have to scream and threaten before people listen to me?’ People either loved him or truly hated him.”

She truly loved him.

“They Call Me Trusty: A Black Firefighter’s Fight for Social Justice” is available at River House Books at The Crossroads Carmel and via Amazon.