Paul F. Johnston (1928-2021)
May 14—Paul F. Johnston, 92, a retired Toledo firefighter who in 1974 was a member of the Toledo Fire Division's first paramedic class, died Monday at St. Clare Commons, Perrysburg, where he lived for about five years.
He had been in declining health, said his sister Karlyn Johnston. Longtime friend Renzo Maraldo — a retired Toledo battalion chief and a member of that first paramedic class — said Mr. Johnston had his own apartment when he moved to St. Clare Commons, but later transferred to memory care and skilled nursing care before receiving hospice care.
He and his late wife, Virginia, lived in Moncks Corner, S.C., near Charleston, in retirement and returned to Toledo in 2010.
He closed his Toledo fire career on Oct. 12, 1982. He and the other 11 members of that first paramedic class were 2019 inductees to the University of Toledo Emergency Medicine Fall of Fame. They'd been certified as paramedics in a joint project with the Medical College of Ohio.
During his early 1950s Army service, Mr. Johnson was a medical technician stationed at Fort Clayton in the Panama Canal Zone.
"I would certainly say that meant a lot to his wanting do more of that," his sister said. "The paramedic program coming up was challenging, but was what he wanted."
Mr. Johnson as a paramedic was assigned for a year to Station No. 23 on Laskey Road and worked the balance of his career at the former Station No. 1 downtown, which became the Michael P. Bell Administrative Building.
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"He was just a conscientious person," Chief Maraldo said. "I never heard him say a swear word in all the time I knew him. He'd call the next day to find out what happened to the person who went to the hospital the day before."
Mr. Johnston was handy, with carpentry among his skills, and while at Station No. 1 bought lumber and repaired benches just across Huron Street in Chub DeWolfe Park, home of the firefighters' memorial.
"He loved to take care of people and do things. He never sat still," Chief Maraldo said.
Mr. Johnston was appointed to the fire division, as it was then known, on April 16, 1958.
"He just loved to serve and serve his community," his sister said.
He received a plaque to recognize his valor in rescuing a girl who hadn't emerged from a house fire with other family members. He went back in and, through the smoky dark, found the girl hiding under a pile of clothes.
"He was very calm, a deliberate person," his sister said. "He was not one to talk a whole lot about his work. He took it in stride. I'm sure at times it was dangerous, but he was never one to brag. He did his work. He was happy to do so. He was a gentleman."
In South Carolina, he completed the couple's retirement home and volunteered at the Berkeley County Museum. He liked to build wooden replicas of windmills, the Sanibel Island, Fla., lighthouse, and other landmarks.
Paul Franklin Johnston was born May 23, 1928, to Ida Ruth and Alvin Johnston, the first of four children. He grew up on a farm near Weston, Ohio, and was 15 years old when the family moved to a farm near Grand Rapids, Ohio. He was a 1946 graduate of the former Grand Rapids High School.
Afterward, he was a funeral attendant at area mortuaries, including Walker and Neville funeral homes, and continued that duty on days off as a firefighter, his sister said.
He and the former Virginia Murray Severin married in 1977. She died Jan. 3, 2013.
Surviving are his stepdaughter, Linda Severin; sisters, Margaret Walker-Connor and and Karlyn Johnston, and five step-grandchildren.
A funeral and Last Alarm service will begin at 2 p.m. Friday at Walker Funeral Home, Sylvania Township. The family suggests tributes to the Toledo Firefighters' Museum.
