By FireRescue1 Staff
ASHLAND, Ohio — A late veteran firefighter-paramedic was remembered for inspiring and training others to become first responders.
Times-Gazette reported that during his more than 30 years at the Ashland Fire Department, Raymond Miller trained over 3,700 people to become firefighters and EMS providers.
“He was larger than life,” Miller’s daughter, Laura Bailey, said.
Miller’s son, Ray Miller Jr., is now an AFD captain and said he is continuously reminded of his father’s impact on the department.
“I’ll go to training things throughout my career, and I’ll have people when they see my name ... say, ‘Oh, I knew your dad because he taught my first EMT class back,’” Ray said.
Ray also worked alongside his father at the department for two years when they were both volunteering.
Ashland County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Carl Richart, who also volunteers at the Polk-Jackson-Perry Fire Department, said he was inspired by Miller when he was 15 and visiting the Ashland fire station.
“I formed my life after him because he was the first EMT/paramedic in the area,” Richert said. “Ray was just the kind of guy where you did everything you could to be friends with him and he led me down the right track.”
Miller, who started working at the department in 1962, was promoted to assistant fire chief in 1980 and retired in 1990. After that, he became a real estate agent and a bus driver, and he also had his own painting business.
“Dad never sat still,” Ray Jr. added. “It’s easier to list what he didn’t do than what he did do ... he was either up in a ladder or down in a hole or he was fixing this or working on that.”
Miller’s family said they would remember him for his tendency to “flare it up.”
“Any routine, mundane, boring stuff, make it fun. He did that big time,” Ray Jr. said.