NJ Emergency Manager Dies Following 9/11 Illness
Ryan Stuart McCormick, age 34, died on September 26, 2008. Most recently he served as the Director of Emergency Management for New Jersey's St. Barnabas Healthcare System.
Ryan Stuart McCormick, age 34, died on September 26, 2008. Ryan graduated from Freedom High School, Bethlehem, PA. He was an Eagle Scout at age 14, served in the Civil Air Patrol in Whitehall, PA., and worked as a first responded and EMT while in high school with the Bethlehem Township Volunteer Squad (Assistant Captain).
Ryan graduated from Springfield College in 1997 with a degree in Emergency Services Management. At his time in college, he founded the Springfield College Emergency Response Team to provide services to the campus. This department still exists today. Upon graduation, Ryan worked many paramedic jobs including Nazareth, PA, East Stroudsburg, PA, Mountainside Hospital, NJ, University Hospital, Newark, NJ., St. Joseph's Hospital, NJ.
As a paramedic at University Hospital in Newark that he was a first responder on 9/11/01 to the World Trade Center and Ground Zero. Ryan and his family attribute his Hodgkin's cancer, which appeared in 2002, to his service at that time.
Ryan also served over 8 years from 1998-2007 in the Army Reserve as a Weapons of Mass Destruction/Chemical Warfare Specialist.
After 9/11, Ryan served as Assistant Director of the Center for BioDefense at University Hospital in Newark where he met his wife, Jessica. He moved to Verona, NJ and then served as Captain in the Verona Volunteer Rescue Squad. Ryan and Jessica were married on May 21, 2005 at the First Presbyterian Church, Bethlehem, PA.
Most recently, Ryan worked at the St. Barnabas Healthcare System and became the Director of Emergency Management. He continued to pursue his Master's Degree at Kean University and then Penn State University.
During his illness, Ryan and his wife founded the non-profits NJ Heroes and TurtlePods (giving iPods to cancer patients)
Ryan is survived by his devoted and loving wife, Jessica Marie; by his parents, David Gary and Nancy McCormick, Surfside Beach, SC; his sister, Jessica Lynne, of Bethlehem, PA; his paternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. A.W. Stuart; his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Pat Layman, Salem, NJ; many loving aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. All will miss him dearly.
