Ted Langill Starts His Job as Marshfield's New Town Administrator on a Sad Day

August 17, 2026 (Marshfield) — On a sad day, Ted Langill made his first appearance at the Select Board as Marshfield’s new town administrator.

A little past noon on Monday, Chief Michael LaSelva put out a press release on Facebook saying that Captain William Shields had died.

A few hours later, a Select Board meeting started off not with a welcome for Langill but with remembrances for Capt. Shields.

“I'd like to begin our meeting this evening just discussing briefly a very unexpected, very unfortunate and tragic loss of one of our heroes on the Marshfield Fire Department that happened this weekend,” said Chair Rick Smith at the beginning of the meeting. “Captain Bill Shields, who devoted more than 20 years of service of his life, serving and protecting others in our town, is no longer with us.

“He brought tremendous courage and dedication to his job, to our town. Our community today is in mourning and our deepest condolences and prayers are with his family, his fellow firefighters and all those who loved him.”

Smith then read from Chief Michael LaSelva’s message to the community, which is copied above, then continued with his own thoughts.

“A loss like this is always hard,” said Smith, “not just for the family and the friends and the people that they serve with, but for our entire community. It reminds us of the fragility of life and the challenges that everybody who serves in uniform in all respects that they encounter daily in order to keep us safe and the sacrifices that they make.

“I'd encourage everyone in our community to come together to show our support for the family of Captain Shields and for the members of the Marshfield Fire Department who are grieving this pretty tremendous loss. I encourage residents and businesses to display a red light or a red ribbon this week as a quiet sign that Marshfield stands with our firefighters. Let us show his family, his fellow firefighters, and one another what it means to be a community that does stand together in difficult times. And at this time, I'd like to have a moment of silence.”

Selectman Eric Kelley said that this was the first time he had encountered a situation like this since he joined the board. He asked Police Chief Phil Tavares for advice on what to do and then went to visit the fire department to offer his condolences.

Selectman Chris Rohland also offered his condolences.

I really echo both of my fellow Select Board members' condolences and feelings. It's always hard when you lose somebody great that's done good things in their life, and, you know, especially a public servant. I mean, I always remember someone telling me, you know, when most people would be running out of a building, people like Bill Shields were running into buildings. And I think there's a lot of honor in that. And I like to honor him by just saying thank you for your service, Mr. Shields and Captain Shields. And, you know, again, express my condolences to his family. But otherwise, that's all I have to say.

With that, Smith welcomed Ted Langill to his new job as town administrator for Marshfield.

“Tough time to come to town,” said Langill, “keeping tabs on everything going on over the weekend and talking to the chief. It's important to note that they are getting all the support they possibly can right now from both the town and outside sources. So they are getting that, which is incredibly important. It's going to be a long haul to get over it. And I'm glad to see rallying around them to get through this.

“Having said that, day one. Well, first, let me say thanks for this opportunity, both to the board. The overwhelming outreach and support from, you know, the town in general was quite overwhelming and much appreciated. And I think, you know, obviously been a while to get to this point and a lot of things to get back on track and a lot of people excited about helping to do that, including myself.

“And I'm very excited to be here to start us down that road. Day one was incredibly productive for me on the start of doing that with some staff members who are also eager to get going and get things back on the right track. But it's been an overwhelmingly positive experience, the process and coming here. And I am very appreciative of that. And I'm looking forward to the years ahead and the results that I plan on helping produce with the great folks in this building and around town.”

“Thank you very much, Mr. Langill,” said Smith. “And we are very much looking forward to working with you.”

I want to offer my condolences to the Marshfield Fire Department and the family of Captain William Shields. Last night, I was about to put out a celebratory post about the arrival of new Town Administrator Ted Langill; then Select Board Chair Rick Smith started talking about Capt. Shields. I had heard earlier that there were mutual aid fire trucks at the fire station, but I had not expected the reason to be this sad.