John's father came to California in 1949 to mine gold, exactly 100 years after the first forty-niners came west with that same goal. Eventually he settled in the central valley and raised a family. John grew up there but moved to San Jose to study at San Jose Bible College. He started his work life in the Loma Prieta area as a carpenter, but then the pastor's role opened up at Mountain Bible Church and he's been there ever since.
John and his wife Kim moved here in 1981. Just a couple years later they took a CPR class offered by the department and he realized his job would allow him to respond to incidents during the daytime. So he joined the department in 1985, completed his training, and started responding. His very first call was the 15,000 acre Lexington fire, and it kept him busy for five days straight. During that time he was part of a crew which saved a house at the corner of Loma Prieta & Mt Bache.
John says his most memorable call was the birth of a child. Other vivid memories come from the 1989 earthquake. Over 20 injured people were flown out of our area on helicopters after that event, and there were so many fires and damaged structures that emergency personnel couldn't get to them all. He even helped set up a morgue, which - fortunately - wasn't needed. There have been many calls in John's career. After all, he's been responding for 22 years, and that's thousands of responses. In 1989 - just a month before the quake - John was recognized for his efforts with the EMT Volunteer of the Year award in Santa Cruz County.
He's also been on the other side. Shortly after he joined the department Kim was hit by a car and seriously injured. Members of the department and the community helped John and his family through that time. All these years later he still remembers how much that help mattered.
In his role as pastor, John has performed over 100 marriages and 90 funeral services here in the mountains, so he's part of our lives. In addition, he and others from his church have assisted at projects in Guatemala and Bolivia, helping build homes and schools so the local people can break the cycle of poverty.
Beyond his work at Mountain Bible Church and responding with LPVFR, John plays guitar, has been a little league coach, and loves baseball and baseball history. The members of his church even gave him a trip to Cooperstown to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Speaking personally, I've been on calls with John. He's always calm, leads by example and communicates clearly. He gives good feedback on how things went as well. As such he's a valuable part of the LPVFR team, and a good friend. He says he likes the high quality of volunteers he gets to work with on the department. I think he has some influence on the people who join, and we're all better off because of it.