WEST ALLIS - The head of the Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin resigned Tuesday over a racist comment he made the day after Barack Obama was elected president. Rick Gale, who had worked on Obama's Wisconsin campaign, apologized to the union and the public in his resignation letter. “Unfortunately he made a mistake,” said union spokesperson Jeff Remsik. Gale admitted in his letter that he used the "single racially charged word" during a private, casual conversation while having drinks with several board members Nov. 5. "The word has no business in my vocabulary and I should not have used it - not even in private," he wrote. "In doing so I let myself, the PFFW Executive Board and the entire membership down," he added. "I am sorry. I have asked the PFFW and the public to accept my deepest and sincerest apology." Gale, a lieutenant with the West Allis Fire Department, said he was also resigning from all the governmental and public boards on which he served. Those posts include membership on the State of Wisconsin Retirement Board as an appointee of Gov. Jim Doyle, an ardent supporter of Obama throughout the presidential race. Obama was endorsed for president by the International Association of Fire Fighters, whose general president Harold Schaitberger issued a memo to its Wisconsin affiliates commenting on the resignation by saying Gale's comments were "inexcusable." "However, this is also an opportunity to restate clearly my fundamental goal of building a union that is free from all forms of bigotry and bias," Schaitberger said. Gale was not home when TODAY'S TMJ4 visited several times Tuesday. (The Associated Press contributed to this report)