Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
ANDERSON, S.C. (AP) — The first two times 19-year-old Greg Shore asked Robin "Bunny" Holly for a date, he had to cancel — opting instead to drive his ambulance on emergency runs throughout Anderson County.
She eventually earned certification as an emergency medical technician, and served as a volunteer on the ambulance crew.
"It was the only way we could spend time together. When I met him, he was into ambulance work 24/7," said Bunny Shore, remembering the start of a romance that now includes 36 years of marriage.
At an age when his contemporaries were driving to movie theaters and dances, Shore was driving patients to hospitals. He became an emergency medical technician at age 16 and became the state's first paramedic at age 18, the same year he started his ambulance business.
Forty years later, Shore's energy level and passion for emergency care are unchanged.
The scope of the mission, however, has changed dramatically.
Shore, 58, is no longer the only full-time employee. Bunny, the couple's three sons, and 457 other employees make up South Carolina's largest ambulance service. Medshore serves more than 100,000 patients annually, with 93 ambulances in 16 counties.
The business was born on Jan. 1, 1976. Shore, who maintains his paramedic license at age 58, remembers that first call well.
"It was on an alphabet street in Anderson. An elderly lady fell on the porch and broke her hip," said Shore, who did the driving while EMT-certified helpers assisted patients in the back.
Shore calls the first five or six years of the business "tough financially," but rewarding in other ways.
"The most exciting time of my life was in those ages of 15 through 21, when I was getting that experience and learning the ropes of running a business," he said.
Also challenging was an immense responsibility for an 18-year-old and paramedic newbie who had little help when it came to expertise because he was the county's first trained paramedic in 1978. And the equipment was primitive by today's standards.
At times, others shared the concern. Shore hadn't been a paramedic long when he and an EMT-certified friend needed to take a 15-year-old to a hospital in Atlanta.
The mother rode in back with her ailing son, and in the course of conversation realized that both Shore and the EMT were quite young.
Shore gained as much experience as possible, as quickly as possible. In the early days, he and Bunny worked for his competitor — the Anderson Rescue Squad — as volunteers.
The endeavor ended in 1987, when the county sourced out its emergency care to Medshore.
By that time, the 30-year-old Shore was experienced in all phases of emergency care.
His unlikely career ride began at age 15. He was intrigued by photography, the profession of his father Gerald Shore. That interest had enabled him to connect with local police officers and emergency crews as he photographed crash scenes for the Anderson newspaper and insurance companies.
That led to an unforgettable ride-along with an ambulance crew early in the summer of 1973.
"We were going down Main Street, taking a patient to the hospital, with lights flashing and siren blaring," said Shore, sounding as if the scene replayed in his mind. "That night, it hit me like a brick. I knew this is what I wanted to do the rest of my life."
His penchant for learning new — and preferably exciting — things didn't stop there. Shore's hobbies include piloting planes and helicopters, and on Jan. 1, 1996 — 20 years after starting his ambulance business — he became county coroner.
"The hours are horrible, and it's so much tougher than being a paramedic," Shore said. "It's stressful and difficult when you have to inform a family of the untimely death of a loved one.
"But," Shore said, "there's so much a death investigation can tell you. It's helping people, in a different way."
Shore was chosen the 2015 Coroner of the Year by the South Carolina Association of Coroners, and received a similar award from another organization in 2011.
In 2014, he was chosen Communitarian of the Year by the United Way of Anderson County. Three times, Medshore has been chosen the state's best EMS program by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Today, the coroner's load is shared by three paid deputies, a luxury Shore didn't have in 1996. It was a demanding job, one that he unknowingly prepared for with more than 20 years in the emergency response business.
"It's almost insane to look back at what I did when I was 18, and those years when I was running an ambulance on a learner's permit.
"I'm blessed. Not too many people get the opportunity to enjoy what they do, and to learn what they want to do at an early age. This is my calling. It still is."
___
Information from: Anderson Independent-Mail, http://www.andersonsc.com
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
