By Emily Balser
Tribune Review
PITTSBURGH—Doug Kupas still remembers the first time he took an EMT class from Bob and Mary Kepics.
It was 1981 and Kupas was just 17 years old. Little did he know that this class would not only set the way for the rest of his career, but a lifelong friendship with Gilpin residents Bob, 83, and Mary, 81.
“The first class he came in and he had this incredibly gaudy tie on and started to talk and then said something like, ‘nobody’s paying attention — you’re all staring at my tie,’” Kupas said. “He took a pair of trauma shears out of his pocket and cut his tie off.”
Kupas, originally from Allegheny Township, took those initial skills learned from Bob and went on to become a doctor. He now works as the EMS medical director for the state Department of Health.
As emergency medical personnel were honored across the state for EMS Week this week, many with roots in the Alle-Kiski Valley are paying homage to the couple who they call pioneers in the field.
Bob and Mary Kepics began teaching first-aid classes when they became certified after one of their young children was burned with hot water.
After his son recovered from the accident, Bob decided he wanted to be prepared for any future accidents his five children may have.
“I said ‘we can’t let his happen again. … I’m going to take a first-aid class,’” he said.
And from there he, and eventually Mary, started teaching others in the early 1970s.
Bob was the 139th person to become certified as an EMT in the state. Now, there are hundreds of thousands who have become certified, Kupas said.
During this time, there was no 911 or ambulance services as there are today.
Most patients were transported in the back of the local funeral home’s hearse. There was no care provided until they reached the hospital.
Dr. Kupas said, “It’s people like them that saw the light and saw the reason why additional education, training, care and treatment was important, instead just being a vehicle to stick somebody in the back and drive someone to the hospital.”
Bob Kepics saw an opportunity to improve those services and started teaching EMT courses.
He was instrumental in creating the Lower Kiski Ambulance Service.
“These people — we touched their lives,” Kepics said. “That’s really what motivated us.”
Parks Township resident Brenda Coulter-Milliman, 54, first met the Kepics when she took their first-aid class as a 12 year old. She went on to be a paramedic and eventually a registered nurse.
“Anybody who had the opportunity to know them and to be trained by them is certainly a better person because of them,” Coulter-Milliman said.
State Police Capt. Steve Ignatz, 54, also took his first class with the Kepics when he was 12.
“Bob sort of took me under his wing,” Ignatz said.
Kepics used to take Ignatz to work with him at the old Rainbow Control in Vandergrift, where emergency calls were dispatched before the 911 system was put into place.
“He used to take me up there on Sundays,” he said. “I’d just sit there and listen to the police radios.”
Ignatz said he owes his career to Bob and Mary.
“They are just the most wonderful people anyone could ever meet,” he said.
Bob, who still works as an Armstrong County deputy coroner, said his proudest accomplishment in his career is a happy one.
“I delivered three babies,” he said, smiling from ear-to-ear.
After raising five kids and training hundreds of people in first-aid, CPR and EMT classes, Bob and Mary still remain active in the community and emergency response field.
“63 years, but I’d do it all over again,” Bob said, looking at Mary.
“That’s for sure,” Mary said.
Copyright 2017 Tribune Review