Our town, like most towns of any size and history, has a few public servants whose service is so exemplary it becomes legendary: that volunteer firefighter who puts in five decades of active service and then “retires” but still shows up on fire calls, or that lifelong member of the emergency medical services who has trained more than 100,000 fellow citizens in CPR (we’re looking at you, Tom Field of Amagansett). Into this category we would place Randy Hoffman, who died earlier this month of a rare blood cancer.
Mr. Hoffman was a paramedic who ran thousands of calls for all the ambulance services between Montauk and Bridgehampton as a critical-care emergency medical technician, then was paralyzed from the neck down during a surgery gone wrong, but fought his way back to standing and started running ambulance calls again. His character and his service certainly were heroic, and we believe he should be remembered in some official capacity by the communities he gave his heart and soul to.
How do you honor a hero in E.M.S.? We have a few suggestions.
What about naming the rebuilt East Hampton Town emergency dispatch center in Wainscott the Randy Hoffman Radio Room? Or, making the fire substation on Old Northwest Road, which houses ambulances as well as fire equipment to serve Northwest Woods, the Randy Hoffman Substation? Or how about dedicating the E.M.S. room at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital — which is where all the ambulance workers, whether paid or volunteer, fill out their paperwork and grab a drink or snack after reaching the hospital with their latest patient — the Randy Hoffman Room? Such honors typically are granted to those who donate great amounts of money to the hospital, but Mr. Hoffman’s gift — years of effort, hard-acquired knowledge, and spirit — is surely just as precious a donation.
Honoring Mr. Hoffman would be a feel-good moment for those who worked alongside him. More important, it would also place him where he deserves to be in memory, among the pantheon of public servants, so he can inspire new generations of volunteers, whom we so sorely need right now.