Community loses EMS leader Mark Podgwaite
Oct. 20, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti Waterbury Ambulance Service Executive Director Mark Podgwaite in May 2022. Photo by Gordon Miller
NOTE: Read Mark Podgwaite’s full obituary here.
Waterbury has lost one of its most dedicated public servants.
Mark Douglas Podgwaite Sr., executive director of Waterbury Ambulance Service Inc., died unexpectedly on Friday, Oct. 14. He was 60 years old.
The leader of Waterbury’s nonprofit EMS organization for the past five years, Podgwaite worked tirelessly for the past two years leading a burst of exponential albeit temporary growth in personnel and mission as it took its place at the forefront of community response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Waterbury Ambulance early in the pandemic stepped up to open, staff and run multiple testing sites while also providing pop-up testing clinics often in response to specific outbreaks. The service moved into vaccination administration traveling around Central Vermont and often to the far corners of the state along with providing home visits to vaccinate the elderly, disabled and homebound.
For its efforts under Podgwaite’s leadership, Waterbury Ambulance won recognition in 2021 as Vermont’s Ambulance Service of the Year. In May, Podgwaite received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the state of Vermont.
A black bunting draped above the entrance to the Waterbury Ambulance Station on Monday acknowledges the passing of Executive Director Mark Podgwaite. Photo by Gordon Miller
News of Podgwaite’s passing has trickled through the community in the past several days. Over the weekend, a black bunting was hung on the front of the Waterbury Ambulance station on Guptil Road. The service added a black ribbon emblem to its logo on its Facebook page on Saturday.
Waterbury Town Manager Bill Shepeluk shared the news at the start of Monday night’s Waterbury Select Board meeting. “It was very unexpected. It’s a big loss in the community,” Shepeluk said. “Our thoughts go out to his wife and family.”
Numerous community members have been leaving comments on the Waterbury Ambulance Service Facebook page offering condolences this week. Ambulance service Operations Administrator Maggie Burke-Greiner confirmed the news and said she was in communication with Podgwaite’s spouse, Lisa Clark-Podgwaite. Funeral arrangements were being made and details for a service would be announced soon, she said.
The sad turn of events comes as Waterbury Ambulance continues to run COVID-19 and flu vaccine clinics, respond to 911 emergency calls and conduct a $3 million fundraising campaign to build a new ambulance station along Vermont Route 100 in 2023.
The most recent effort in that campaign was held Friday evening when the Waterbury Fire Department sponsored a dinner and raffle for their fellow first responders’ project. It raised more than $11,000, according to an online update after the event. The department has also since added the Waterbury Ambulance Service logo with the black ribbon emblem bearing Podgwaite’s name to its Facebook page.
A memorial ribbon to Mark Podgwaite is added to the Waterbury Ambulance Service's Facebook page. Screenshot
In addition to the Waterbury community and the statewide EMS community, Podgwaite’s lifelong hobby was raising and showing poultry. For the past 10 years, he was involved as a state, regional and national leader of the American Poultry Association and earlier this year was elected to serve as the trade organization’s president.
“I have been raising poultry for over 50 years and, along with my dad, showing since the early 1970s,” he wrote in a recent article published in the trade magazine Chicken Whisperer.
The group on Tuesday shared the news of Podgwaite’s passing on social media. “Mark's passing was unexpected, and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family,” the message says noting that the organization’s vice president would move into Podgwaite’s role.