WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, Ohio — Fayette County EMS District, marking 50 years of service in 2026, has surfaced another piece of its own archive: an old hospital newsletter clipping describing a short emergency-care course a state-certified instructor taught to supervisors at a local plastics plant.
The district shared the clipping, headlined “Course Completed,” on its Facebook page as part of its ongoing anniversary retrospective. Undated but carrying the “Fayette Memorial Hospital News” masthead, it says 10 members of the Thatcher Plastic Packaging Company’s supervisory staff completed an 18-hour special victim care course developed by the state for workplaces seeking shorter, targeted emergency training.
The course, according to the clipping, was taught by R. Todd Monroe of Emergency Medical Training Systems and Sales, a state-certified instructor who also taught many of the area’s emergency medical technician classes. It covered recognizing medical emergencies, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, bleeding control and shock management, and required participants to pass both written and practical testing.
The clipping named the 10 Thatcher employees who completed the course: Danny Duffy, Terry Shipley, Ken Miller, Rodger Taylor, John Zwiesler, Bruce Bennett, Lee Foster, Ed Strausbaugh, Ron Randolph and Jim Miteff. It noted the abbreviated course stood in contrast to the roughly 100 hours of training undertaken by Fayette County Life Squad personnel at the time.
The district posted the clipping asking residents who remember the era, trained alongside the pictured employees or have their own photos and stories of the Life Squad to share them in the comments. It is the latest in a string of archival finds the district has shared this year, including a 1984 newspaper clipping about a farm rescue workshop and a 1979 clipping documenting a community donation drive that outfitted its ambulances with early anti-shock trousers.
Fayette County EMS District has provided emergency medical care across the county since 1976, according to the agency. It is based in Washington Court House, the county seat, and is led by EMS Director Rodney List.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Fayette County EMS District.
