Hartman honored with Dan O’Connell award
Glen Hartman, a paramedic with St. Croix EMS, has been named 2010 recipient of the Dan O’Connell Outstanding Performer Award.By: Steve Dzubay, Hudson Star-Observer
- Glen Hartman displays his award
Glen Hartman, a paramedic with St. Croix EMS, has been named 2010 recipient of the Dan O’Connell Outstanding Performer Award.
The honor is bestowed annually by the Hudson Noon Rotary Club to a member of the local ambulance and rescue service selected by his or her peers.
“His dedication is second to none in the organization,” St. Croix EMS Chief Eric Christensen said of Hartman in presenting the award at last Thursday’s meeting of the Noon Rotary.
Christensen said Hartman played a leading role in St. Croix EMS’s move to full-time paramedic level service six years ago.
He was the part-time chief of an all-volunteer service at that time, and a member of the hiring committee that brought in Christensen as the full-time chief.
Hartman is a patrol sergeant for the Hudson Police Department in his full-time job.
Hartman also promoted and helped establish the St. Croix EMS underwater dive team. He remains a member of the dive team that, according to Christensen, is one of the most respected in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
“Glen is one of those people who make me look good, so presenting this award is truly special to me,” Christensen said.
In accepting the award, Hartman noted that he got to know Dan O’Connell when he joined Lakeview Hospital’s ambulance service, where O’Connell was then employed in the mid-1980s.
“We were very good friends and partners at Lakeview Hospital, so this is a very special award for me,” Hartman said.
He recalled his first run with O’Connell.
“You usually hop on the truck and everyone’s quite serious,” Hartman related. “Dan puts the truck in gear and we go speeding down Greeley Street. Then he leaned over, flipped on the (AM/FM) radio and starts jamming to the music — Eagles or something. It was (like a scene out of the movie) ‘Mother, Jugs and Speed.’”
“Dan loved EMS. That was his whole life and (that sort of enthusiasm) is how he lived life,” Hartman continued. “He was a great guy and a wonderful human being, so this is a very special honor.”
The award is also meaningful in that it was decided by his peers, Hartman said.
His wife, Debra, is one of those peers. She volunteers with St. Croix EMS as an emergency medical technician and a diver.
Hartman’s name will be the seventh inscribed to the memorial plaque.
Other recipients have included Christopher Kustrich, Jennifer Kerner, Ben Wasmund, Hans Lamkin (two-time recipient), Richard Wold and Jenelle Annacker.
The late Dan O’Connell was a former member of Hudson Noon Rotary. He died Feb. 5, 2002, along with another employee, James Ellison, in an attack while working at O’Connell Family Funeral Home in Hudson.
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