More than 600 people paid their respects to EMS educator Mike Smith at a memorial service held at University Place Presbyterian Church in Washington. Mike died of a heart attack on Sunday October 13, 2013. He was 60-years-old.
The service iincluded more than 250 uniformed personnel from the private and public sector. Many of those in attendance were Mike’s former and current paramedic students. They lined both sides of the entry way into the church to pay their respect for the family.
Moving speeches by John Sinclair, Scott Bourne and Mike Helbock painted a larger-than-life picture of Mike, generous in his spirit and passionate about his life. However, Mike’s daughter Melissa Thurman brought down the house with a PowerPoint presentation, where she said her childhood memories of her father made her feel like the “most special person in the world.”
In maintaining tradition, the end of the memorial was signaled by an engine bell rung three times in succession. As a former volunteer firefighter, Mike Smith had answered his last call to service.
