Richard (Rick) Shoaf was an incredibly selfless individual who spent most of his adult life serving the residents of Swarthmore‚ Pa. He cared deeply about people and was a 26-year member of the Swarthmore Fire Company.

For 15 years Rick was ranked among the top ten firefighters answering the most calls and in the year 2000 was #1 for both firefighters and ambulance personnel.

He enthusiastically led tours of the fire station for the children and gave fire prevention and safety talks at the local schools.

He was an organ donor and was giving in death as well as life.

He was a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician active with two fire companies‚ Swarthmore and South Media. At the time of his death he was Fire Prevention Officer for Swarthmore and Recording Secretary for South Media.

Hundreds of the town people wrote letters to his parents telling of the wonderful things he did for them. One instance was where he took an aging person in the ambulance to the hospital but came back later to that house to look after the dog who was alone. Children wrote of how he let them try on his fire boots or helmet and they couldn’t wait until they were old enough to join the fire company like Fireman Rick.