Vancouver’s Rick Futrell leafed through his reams of newspaper clippings, photos, commendations and other documents built up over more than 40 years working on ambulances.
“I think what really keeps me in the business is loading up people with stinky feet,” he joked, pointing to an old newspaper clipping where Futrell, his back visibly bent, is rolling someone with wrapped feet into the back of an ambulance.
Futrell, 64, plans on retiring from American Medical Response at the end of the year, marking 45 years in emergency medicine, with almost all of those years spent working on the road.
While on an ambulance, he was a reserve Battle Ground police officer for 13 years, a firefighter for more than 20 years, occasional court bailiff, Memorial Coliseum security guard, medic for hydroplane races in the Tri-Cities, and a rescue diver.