After 58 years on the job, Gordon Anderson, one of San Diego County’s most experienced emergency response professionals, enjoyed a retirement party in his honor Friday.
He went on his first ambulance call at 17 with
Ballard’s Ambulance Service
, according to a press release.
After two years with Ballard’s, he jumped in 1969 to Hartson’s Ambulance Service — one of American Medical Response’s predecessors — because they offered him a $15-a-week raise.
Anderson, 75, stayed with the company for 56 years. He retired as the longest-tenured employee at AMR, which has nearly 30,000 employees nationwide.
According to the Chula Vista resident, in his early days as an EMT, he and his dispatcher would contact each other through a Mexican restaurant on El Cajon Boulevard if they had a poor radio connection.
The dispatcher would call the restaurant if they couldn’t get through to Anderson, who would be out driving around in an ambulance. The restaurant would hang a red flag in the window for Anderson to see.
“Then you would stop and make a phone call,” Anderson said.
He has seen it all. He responded to the
1970 Laguna Fire
and the
1978 PSA plane crash
in North Park, which was the deadliest aviation accident in US history at the time.
As a dispatcher from AMR’s communication’s center in Kearny Mesa later in his career, Anderson helped direct first responders to other calamities, including the
2007 Witch Creek Fire
.
According to AMR’s Vice President for Operations Mike Rice, Anderson has been an exemplar for EMTs, providing holistic care in perilous situations.
“Your demeanor and your approach beyond just the clinical care is really impactful to people,” Rice said at the retirement party, at the VFW in La Mesa. “And I think he had the ability to really highlight that as a component of what we do and why it’s important.”
Rice said Anderson’s passion kept him going.
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“You don’t stay in an industry like this for 58 years unless you really care about what you’re doing,” he said.
Anderson tells new EMTs that they’re never going to save a life without the wisdom of more experienced emergency response professionals.
“It’s always going to be the people before you … listen to them, listen to their stories,” he said. “Listen to who they are and learn from them.”
Anderson said a health emergency forced him to retire, but that it was his satisfaction with his work which kept him going for 58 years.
He has four children, a grandson, eight granddaughters and four great-grandchildren.
“And I’m looking for more,” he said.
