Obituary
Gary Marvin McLean was born June 13, 1952 and passed away unexpectedly on June 14, 2021, the day after celebrating his 69th birthday. He was in Portland visiting friends. Gary is survived by his wife, Kim Mellen-McLean, his sister Terry Martin, many McLean and Stafford family nieces, nephews and cousins, and friends across the world. He was a friend and mentor to so many.
Gary was born in Portland and grew up in Parkrose. He graduated from Parkrose High School in 1971 and joined the US Air Force. He served in Thailand, Michigan and Wyoming. After leaving the Air Force in 1977 he decided to become a paramedic. He was one of the first paramedics in Oregon, graduating in the first paramedic class at OHSU. He worked for Buck Ambulance and AMR, including the Reach and Treat Team on Mt. Hood. He spent a year in Saudi Arabia as a paramedic and nearly 3 years as a remote site paramedic in Alaska.
Gary earned his AAS as an RN from Mt. Hood Community College in 1994 and then worked as an ER nurse while volunteering at Sandy Fire Department (SFD). He was hired by SFD as a firefighter/paramedic in 1998. He served as their EMS Training Officer and mentored many volunteers. In all, he served at SFD for 22 years before “retiring” in 2014.
Gary was a phenomenal paramedic and advocate for EMS. He was president of the Oregon EMS Association for 7 years, served on the Board of Governors and the Membership Committee for the National Association of EMTs, and was an EMS Representative on the Epilepsy Foundation Professional Advisory Board.
Gary and his wife Kim moved to Wilderness Ranch, between Boise and Idaho City, in 2017. He began volunteering with the East Boise County Ambulance as a responder and as the Clinical Operations and Training Officer for Unit 15.
His passions for teaching EMS and travel took Gary all over the world. After he “retired”, Gary taught EMS through Medical Teams International in Myanmar, Cambodia and Nepal. He volunteered with HERO in Haiti providing EMS training and emergency response on an ambulance in Port au Prince. He was part of a team which developed protocols, a handbook, and provided training for Rural Medical Responders in Nepal. The program has been adopted by the Nepal Ministry of Health. Over 2000 Nepalese have been trained as rural and remote medical responders in remote medical care through this program.
Gary’s work in Nepal resulted in a passion for both the country and people of Nepal. His students called him Gary Uncle. He made the trek to Everest Base Camp to see the medical facilities. His work in Nepal with Himalayan Medics Rescue Service, Nepal Medics, Himalayan Yokpu Foundation, and the Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital will always be remembered. Gary became active with Musa Masala and was going to be a major part of their nursing scholarship and educational programs.
Gary’s interest in remote/wilderness medicine became his passion in the last few years. He became an instructor of Wilderness First Aid (WFA) through NOLS. He also joined the Wilderness Medical Society and earned his Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine (FAWM) in 2020. At the time of his death, he was working towards a Diploma in Mountain Medicine through WMS.
In addition to EMS travel, Gary loved a good road trip. A favorite destination was Tsylos, the McLean family’s lodge in British Columbia, either with Kim or cousin Larry. Road trips were off the beaten path across western North America, from the Arctic Circle down to the southwest and Texas and from the Pacific Ocean to the Rocky Mountains. Often living in the small pop-up camper for weeks at a time. After Kim retired, more international trips were taken together, visiting 10 countries in 4 years. Many more trips were planned, but alas will not happen.
Gary loved animals, both family pets and wild animals. He loved watching the birds, elk, deer and foxes around the Idaho home. One year he raised California quail from day-old chicks that were raised in the bath tub until they were big enough to go outside to the coop. He rescued frog eggs from the fish in the pond and raise the tadpoles in an aquarium on the kitchen counter. Quail in the tub, frogs on the counter. There was always a little boy that lived in Gary.
Gary never met a stranger. He was full of compassion and tried to make the world a better place act by act, patient by patient, deed by deed. He lived life to its fullest until his last day on earth. We lost him way to soon. Namaste Gary.
A Celebration of Life is planned for Monday August 2 from 6-9 pm. The celebration will take place at the gazebo in Meinig Memorial Park, Sandy, OR.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital or the Musa Masala nursing scholarship program in Nepal
Donations to the family can be made to the go fund me at - https://gofund.me/99eac08a