PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Pittsburgh EMS Chief Ronald Romano has retired after 45 years of serving the city.
Friday was Romano's last day in uniform, the Pittsburgh Bureau of EMS announced on Monday.
Romano became a city paramedic in 1978 and worked his way through the ranks, becoming the deputy EMS chief in 2016 and the EMS chief in 2018.
To honor Romano's service, City Council declared March 28, 2023, as Chief Ronald Romano Day.
After 45 years of devoted service to the City of Pittsburgh, EMS Chief Ronald Romano is retiring from the Pittsburgh Bureau of EMS.
Friday, March 31, 2023 was his last day in uniform.
Romano began his EMS career in 1975 with Perman Ambulance Service in Pittsburgh. In March of 1978, he was hired as a paramedic with the City of Pittsburgh. He first worked on the city's North Side at Medic 4, where he spent two years. He was promoted to Crew Chief and spent five years at Medic 3 in the West End and a little more than two years at Medic 13, which has since been taken out of service.
He rose through the ranks over the years to first become a Field Supervisor, which later became the District Chief position. In February 2005, he advanced to Division Chief of the Ambulance Division, a position that also handled all EMS planning for major events in Pittsburgh.
Romano became Deputy EMS Chief in March 2016 and was promoted in October 2018 as the City's 7th Chief of Pittsburgh EMS by then-Mayor, Bill Peduto.
City Council honored his more than four decades of service with a proclamation, declaring March 28, 2023, Chief Ronald Romano Day in the City of Pittsburgh.
During the ceremony, Chief Romano thanked his wife Lucy, his daughters Rachel and Leah, his son, Ron Jr. and his extended family for their support over the years. He reflected on the many pivotal moments he experienced during his career, but acknowledged that his most fulfilling accomplishment occurred relatively recently, following one of the most challenging periods during his tenure; the global COVID-19 pandemic.
"We did not have one employee get admitted to the hospital, let alone pass away during the pandemic. We were able to continue to support the system and put the trucks on the road every day when numerous systems across the country were shutting down. That's a compliment to all of my staff," said Chief Romano.
He told Council Members and those who gathered for the ceremony, that they may not have known it, but he worried about his EMS personnel every day, from the moment he went to sleep, from the moment he woke up.
Pittsburgh Public Safety Department Director Lee Schmidt worked with Chief Romano in recent years and during his own career in the EMS field, prior to joining the City of Pittsburgh.
"He was always the consummate professional who put his staff and their well-being first. He believed in ongoing training for EMTs and paramedics and investing in technology to ensure that Pittsburgh EMS remains one of the most respected pre-hospital care services in the country. His calm nature and dedication to the job will be greatly missed, but Chief Romano has left the Bureau of EMS on solid footing and in capable hands."
Congratulations Ronald Romano on his retirement and 45 years of faithful service to the residents and visitors to Pittsburgh!
Romano said one of his most fulfilling accomplishments happened rather recently after one of the most challenging periods of his career: the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We did not have one employee get admitted to the hospital, let alone pass away during the pandemic. We were able to continue to support the system and put the trucks on the road every day when numerous systems across the country were shutting down. That's a compliment to all of my staff," said Romano.
In a Facebook post, the bureau congratulated Romano on his retirement and 45 years of "faithful service."
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Your Privacy
Essential
Analytic & Performance
Functional
Marketing and Advertising
Social Media
Your Privacy
This page provides an overview of our use of cookies and similar technologies (from here we will refer to all those as “Cookies”) and how to manage them. For more information please visit our Privacy Policy.
When you visit our properties and use our products and services (“Services”), we use Cookies to analyse and measure our performance, customize content and serve personalized advertisements. We may place our own Cookies (First-party Cookies) or allow our service providers to place Cookies (Third-party Cookies) on your device and collect information such as your device ID, browser type and IP address so they can help us better understand your interaction with our Services. Advertisers and other advertising technology partners may also use their own third-party Cookies to collect information about your visits, deliver advertisements tailored to your interests, keep track of the number of views of a specific advertisement, analyses the effectiveness of advertisements, or provide auditing, research and reporting for advertisers. Such third parties may also match you to an existing interest category (e.g. automobiles) that they’ve developed and provide you with more relevant advertising over time and across different websites.
When you click on save settings below, your preferences will be saved. You can change your settings at any time by using the consent settings module. Note that saving settings is linked to the particular browser and/or device you use to visit our Services. Saving your settings within one particular Service will not affect your choices on other Paramount Services, or if you visit this Service with another device or from a different browser. In addition, it won’t affect any of your activities on third-party services. You have other choices to manage cookies and other tracking technologies on the internet such as using industry choice programs or managing your preferences within your browsers or devices. For more Information refer to our Privacy Policy.
Essential
Always Active
These cookies are essential for the proper functioning of our Services. Essential cookies cannot be switched off in our systems. You can set your device to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the Service will not work.
Analytic & Performance
Always Active
These Cookies allow us to collect information about how visitors use our properties. Some examples include counting visits and traffic sources, so we can measure and improve the performance of our services. If you do not allow these Cookies we will not know when users have visited our properties and will not be able to monitor performance.
Functional
Always Active
These Cookies enable the services to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our services. If you do not allow these Cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.
Marketing and Advertising
Always Active
These Cookies may be set by us or through our services by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant advertising on this and on other properties. If you do not allow these Cookies, you will still see ads, but you will experience less relevant advertising.
Social Media
Always Active
These Cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the services to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites, building up a profile of your interests to show you relevant content and advertisements on the relevant social networks. If you do not allow these Cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.