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EMS Legend Jim Page Remembered At Carlsbad, CA Memorial Service

HEATHER CASPI

09/16/2004

CARLSBAD, Calif. (Sept 16) -- EMS legend James O. Page was honored Thursday here in a memorial service filled with touching memories and heartfelt remarks that celebrated not only Page's vast contributions to EMS, but his warm character and devotion to his "extended family" in fire, EMS, law and publishing.

Colleagues, friends and family gathered from across the U.S. with the largest contingents coming from all over southern California.

One of many attendees, Battalion Chief Bill Toon of Johnson County Med-Act in Kansas, said he met Page back in 1976 when Page was executive director at ACT, the Advanced Coronary Treatment Foundation in New Jersey. "I was just a young snot of an EMT," Toon said. "I showed up one day at his office unannounced, and it was the start of a very long friendship."

Toon recalled, "You only needed to meet Jim once for him to remember you. Five years later he'd walk up to you, call you by name and shake your hand. That was one of his great strengths. He treated everyone as a friend."

Others at the service shared similar sentiments.

Carlsbad Fire Chief Kevin Crawford held back tears during his welcome speech as he explained, "This is a man who was larger than life in my personal and professional life."

He said Page lived an unparalleled life, seemingly fitting five or six lives into one life span. "If he saw a need that was going unfulfilled, he found a way to fill it," the chief said. He highlighted some of Page's many accomplishments, including moving through the LA County Fire Department ranks while attending law school at night, implementing North Carolina's EMS system, founding JEMS, co-founding his law firm Page, Wolfberg and Wirth, authoring five books, 400 magazine articles and editorials, and giving 800 public speeches.

"Jim loved all of his many professions, and the common thread that that ran through each was service," Crawford said.

The chief said that although there is no marble statue to remember Page, there are paramedic rigs and helicopters. "If you listen to the sound of a working EMS incident, that is the symphony of Jim Page's life," he said.

The eulogy was given by William Hood, chaplain of the LA County FD, followed by remembrances from colleagues and family members.

Law partner Doug Wolfberg said Page's mission in law was to break down barriers to progress, and that he would often work pro bono to represent those in the emergency services, and often donated his speaking fees to charities.

Bill Atkinson, President and CEO of WakeMed Health Systems in Raleigh, NC described his adventures with Page as he developed the state's EMS system in the 1970s. He said Page was a bureaucracy slayer and joked that he actually caused many cases of chest pain among government officials.

Chief Alan Brunacini of the Phoenix Fire Department described his experience as a contemporary of Page's and joked about their differences, calling Page extremely elegant in his presence and his leadership.

Son Tom Page said Jim considered everyone in his life extended family. "That's why he worked so hard and put so much on the line for them," Tom said. He said the family is grateful for everyone's support and love of their father, and read letters from family members in order to share with everyone the side of Page that his colleagues had not seen.

The letters revealed much about Page and his larger-than-life beginnings. His mother wrote that there was never a dull moment with Jim and that he was always full of giggles. She recalled that at age 12, Page collapsed in the street with rheumatic fever one day while delivering newspapers, and had to be in bed for a month - so he read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. Another time, he tired of raising pigeons in the backyard and proposed having them for Sunday dinner. Afterward he announced, "I think I just ate Homer."

Tom Page elicited a lot of laughter as he recalled the time he dared his brother Andy, now Captain with the Poway, CA Fire Department, to pull a fire alarm. He said their parents were mortified and that the responding firefighters couldn't stop "hootin and hollerin" when they realized whose kids had pulled the alarm. "I thought they were laughing at Andy, but Dad cleared that up," Tom Page said.

Daughter Susan von Beck told of the time she brought home a golden retriever puppy and let it spend the night in Page's chair. The next morning Page sat down in his pristine blue suit before an important meeting, and stood up with his backside entirely covered in yellow fur. Instead of telling him and getting in trouble, she and her mother let him leave that way. She said the family didn't keep the dog very long, but cried as she told how Page supported her love of dogs and recently helped her build her dog kennel business.

Son Andy Page, Captain with the Poway Fire Department, recalled his father's infectious laugh and said some of Jim's happiest days were as an LA fire captain, when would he would sometimes finish a shift aching from laughter.

Like many of the other speakers, he mentioned Jim's love of engines.

"People have said dad never met a microphone he didn't like... he also never met an internal combustion engine he didn't like," Andy Page said. When Page once asked Andy what kind of engine was inside his department's newly purchased vehicle, he couldn't answer, and his father said, "You aren't going to be one of those firefighters that doesn't know anything about their fire engine, are you?"

He said that while his father had high expectations, he was also very proud of his children's and colleagues' efforts and was generous with praise.

Daughter Deborah Ries, who shares Jim's love of the law, closed the services by thanking the many EMS/Fire departments and those individuals involved, for their loving support and help.

At the end of the service, the family asked for one final round of applause for Jim Page for a job well done, and the room rose to a thunderous standing ovation.

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