ASHLAND — For as long as there has been a Boyd County EMS, Bob Gainer has been its director.

All that will change today when Gainer officially steps in to retirement after 30 years of shaping ambulance service in Boyd County and the throughout the commonwealth.

Gainer was honored Saturday night with a retirement reception and roast at King’s Daughters Medical Center.

One by one, EMS leaders from across the state along with public officials and personal friends took the microphone to extol Gainer’s accomplishments and share some of their fondest memories of him.

“Over the last 30 years he has basically been the key figure in molding what EMS is now in Ashland, Boyd County and Catlettsburg. He took his vision of what service should be and built it from there,” said incoming Director Tom Adams. “He has truly been instrumental in shaping EMS not only here, but statewide for years.”

Gainer’s influence began in the early 1970s when he took the very first EMT class offered in the area and then also passed the National Registry examination. As a volunteer at the time with the Boyd County Rescue Unit and Westwood Volunteer Fire Department, he responded to accidents in Boyd County and transported the injured to the hospital.

According to Gainer and others, the volunteers were necessary because Boyd County was served only by a private ambulance service, which provided all different types of medical transportation in addition to selling home oxygen and wheelchairs.

Emergency service was not a priority and was only provided if staff was available.

“I didn’t think that was right so I shot my mouth off,” Gainer said. Some time later community leaders, he said, decided Boyd County needed an ambulance service and began working with King’s Daughters Medical Center to create one. When officials began looking for someone to run it, the statement was made “Bob Gainer has been telling everybody for years how it should be done. Let’s see if he wants to do it,” he said.

Gainer accepted the position and on July 1, 1977, Boyd County EMS, known then as Emergency Ambulance Service Incorporated, responded to its first call.

At the time, according to Ira Dyer II, a retired director of Louisville Fire and Rescue, the service was one of only two paramedic services in the state.

The ambulance service was first run from was several rooms in the nurses dorm at the old KDMC nursing school. It wasn’t until 1986 that the stations on Greenup Avenue and U.S. 60 in Summit opened. Earlier this month, a third station opened at the England Hill Volunteer Fire Department.

In 1981, Gainer was one of the founding members of the Kentucky Ambulance Providers Association. He served as secretary for several years before being elected president of the association.

As president, he worked tirelessly to move ambulance service out of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and create the Kentucky Board of EMS — a free standing board that oversees services statewide.

Gainer was also a key player in the creation of the Regional Public Safety Communications Center and is the current chairman of the 911 Board for the RPSCC. He is also the treasurer of Westwood Fire Department.

“Bob’s had such an impact on the community. I don’t think he realizes what he’s done and I’m sure the community doesn’t either,” said Sandy Virgin, director of the RPSCC.

“Bob was a huge part of bringing together all the agencies in this community to make the 911 Center. He was one of the forefathers and a leader in that.”

Larry Lee, Boyd County EMS paramedic shift supervisor, has served with Gainer and Boyd County EMS since its inception as well. Gainer, he said, “gave us direction and held us together like glue.

“It’s a good service and I attribute a lot of that to the way Bob Gainer steered that ship.”

Don Adams, a retired director of Morehead-Rowan County EMS, said Gainer was a mentor to him. He said another one of Gainer’s most important contributions was “getting the EMTs and paramedics accepted as professionals.”

Ashland Commissioner Kevin Gunderson, also praised Gainer’s accomplishments and presented him with a key to the city on behalf of the Ashland Board of City Commissioners.

As for his retirement plans, Gainer said he intends to stay at his summer home at Middle Bass Island on Lake Erie “until I want to leave. I’ve never had that opportunity.”

Gainer said he also hopes to be named to the county’s Ambulance Service Board when a seat becomes available.

CARRIE KIRSCHNER can be reached at ckirschner@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.