07/23/2026
In the summer of 1988, I was fortunate to get an opportunity to become the Paramedic instructor for the University of Alabama. At the time UA hosted the program as part of the medical school. I was a twenty-one-year-old kid with a grand total of two years’ experience as a paramedic and a couple of basic EMT classes under my belt. My first class assembled in August that year, six intermediate EMT’s expecting to find a seasoned Paramedic prepared to impart knowledge and create a foundation for them. What they got was me. I can’t remember the entire group but three of those students are still involved in EMS. They all worked a solid career with NorthStar. Jason Esslinger went on to become an FBI agent, Mike Coakley, a long-time paramedic instructor himself who I still have the privilege of working with. The third one of those guys, Curtis Swindle, worked with NorthStar for thirty-four years, the last thirty as our corporate Safety Director. To the best of my knowledge, we have never had anyone else in that role.
Wednesday morning about 11:00 AM, that thirty-eight-year relationship came to an end. Curtis Swindle passed away sometime during the early morning hours of July 22, 2026, peacefully dying in his sleep. That is the way Curtis needed to go. Anyone who knew him would agree, he would not have been a good patient. I simply cannot visualize Curtis admitted to an ICU unit. He would have been the worst patient in medical history.
Let me tell you a little about his background. Curtis graduated high school and spent a couple years in the Navy. He worked as a jet mechanic on the USS Midway before being discharged from service. If you spent any time with him, you would know he left the Navy base in Pensacola Florida having no clue what his future would hold. On his way out of town an ambulance ran him off the road. He said he felt like he could drive better than that, why not get back home and drive an ambulance. Back in Tuscaloosa Curtis applied with the local service at the time, Suburban Ambulance. He hit it off with the manager, Mr. Turner. Mr. Turner had been an Air Force pilot. They got sidetracked during the interview talking about airplanes. Curtis didn’t know he needed to be licensed, and Mr. Turner forgot to ask. Turns out he worked a couple shifts without putting his license number on the run reports. When asked he said, you want my driver’s license number? No Curtis, we need your EMT license number. He told them he didn’t have an EMT license, didn’t know what that was. True story. They quickly enrolled him in a local EMT program and the rest is history.
Curtis moved from Suburban to NorthStar as part of Tony’s original group of about twelve people. He was a shift supervisor from the jump and became well known for getting the “problem children” who came through. He was just that kinda guy. No nonsense, common sense thinking guy with a sailor’s mindset and vocabulary. Very early on Curtis took a liking to the safety aspect of EMS. The environment was much different then. Internet was in its infancy; newspapers were still the way news was dispatched. We were beginning to feel the weight of bad drivers in our industry with a landmark case at the time of a Paramedic being jailed for vehicular manslaughter. Curtis took it on as his mission to fix the bad drivers in this company and he was still working toward that goal when he left the office Tuesday evening.
Curtis has touched an awful lot of lives in this business. You might have been on the wrong end of one of his classic butt chewings. They were legendary! You might have been part of an EMT Class he organized and taught. EMT classes had nothing to do with safety but as we found ourselves needing more than the local system could produce, he started a class at night. If you are an older EMT like Charles Stewart, maybe you were his partner and if you worked here before COVID, he likely did your company orientation. It was impossible to work with NorthStar and not cross his path at some point.
Curtis and Becky had three boys. Ben, Zach and Garrett. They all came through NorthStar at some point. Ben and Zach worked as EMT’s here for years. I’ve always believed he wanted to coach his boys and teaching EMT class was a good way to do that.
I could write for hours and never get close to covering all the stories. He played guitar and was actually a pretty good singer. If you were present for company parties of the early 90’s you would have heard some Jimmy Buffet or classic country music. The last time I saw Curtis was late Tuesday afternoon. He was standing in the door of Tim’s office telling us Navy stories. I had no idea that would be the last story I heard him tell. That’s life. We just don’t know.
If you didn’t have a relationship of some sort with Curtis, well you missed out. Those of us who were blessed to work with him over the years, we need to get together and tell some stories. Curtis had a big impact on this company, its success, its transitions and evolutions over the years. He will be missed.
Edgar
