David Minks died several years ago. I don’t expect that revelation will mean much to many EMS folks, as David hasn’t been in the ambulance business for over twenty-five years.
He is one of the old timers who left EMS and faded away from the industry’s consciousness. I ran across his name while I was looking through my Blackberry for a phone number and recalled hiring him in Amarillo in 1979 to work as a paramedic.
David was a little pudgy, a little sloppy, a little boisterous and wasn’t readily accepted by the crews — after all he wasn’t a Texan. But he grew on people. David seemed to always be in trouble, but it was always a “little trouble,” never anything major.
He would say something wrong to a nurse, anger a family member, or fall asleep in the ER (David was the only guy I knew that could fall asleep standing up). But he was also loyal, cared greatly for his patients and had good technical skills that eventually won the hearts of his co-workers, his bosses and everyone he was around.
During my time in Amarillo, David was resilient — he took on any job given to him, always had a new idea and was usually the first to volunteer for the worst assignments and the worst partners.
As his boss I am sure I didn’t appreciate how much he brought to the company until years later. He worked a ton of hours — hell, we all did back then — and he eventually went into ambulance equipment sales before finally leaving the industry.
In November of last year Wilford H. “Bill” Leonard died during surgery. Unlike David, Bill was well known in his time by almost everyone in EMS. In 1979 his company — Medical Services Inc. — was considered by Emergency as “one of the nation’s leading private paramedic ambulance services” in the country, and it’s where I got my start.
Bill was not universally liked — he could be tough and he was certainly controversial — but Bill was my first EMS boss and, to me, he was larger than life. I was never prouder of my profession then when I put on my MSI uniform and served the community at a standard that was almost unheard for ambulance companies in the mid 70’s.
Not a day goes by that I don’t use a skill or teach a philosophy that I learned so many years ago in Eugene, Oregon, from Bill or his handpicked management team. The standards he demanded would be difficult to expect in some of today’s workforces, but I was glad to be a part of the experience.
I stayed in touch with Bill and he told me once that he was proud of all the people who had come through MSI and gone on to successful careers in the industry. It was a long list, and I was proud that he thought highly of us.
Now completely distracted, I look through my Blackberry to remove the contact information for David and Bill and I realize there are over a dozen names of ex-EMS friends in there that are now deceased.
The deleted phone list contains many of the old guard who died while still in the business and some who simply left EMS. Some were happy and fulfilled and some died too young, some by their own hand. Some of them I was close to and some I have lost touch with over the years, I think of each of them as I delete their phone numbers and contact information.
As I see 55 years old in my rear view mirror, I think it is a shame that today’s youthful workforce will really never know of the contributions, large and small, of those who came before them from people like David, Bill and others.
I learned something from all of them, and I value the time we spent in EMS together and the job they did. Later today I am going to call some old friends and tell them just that.
