Honorees

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Year Honored
2011
Honoree
Dale Eidsvig
Agency
Hennepin County Medical Center EMS
Agency City
Minneapolis
Agency State
MN
Last Call
10/29/72
Cause of Death
Ambulance Involved MVC
Biography
When Dale started working for the Hennepin County General Hospital (now Hennepin County Medical Center) in the late 1960s, he acquired another passion in his life. He had many stories to tell when he came home from work each day. One story he loved telling was when he had to deliver a baby in the back of the ambulance.<br /> <br /> Dale had many other passions: family, the Minnesota Twins, Vikings and Gopher football, and, last but not least, bowling. He bowled in the Peterson Classic in Chicago in 1971 and in the Miller Open in Milwaukee in early 1972, where he bowled against the legendary Earl Anthony.<br /> <br /> Dale was a family man, and he was especially close to his brothers. When he turned seventeen on January 2, 1944, he joined the U.S. Navy because his oldest brother died at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. There were two younger sisters, and, while they all cared deeply for one another, there was something special between the brothers. Only one of his sisters survives. Due to heath reasons, she is unable to attend the memorial service. Dale also served in the Minnesota National Guard during the Korean War.<br /> <br /> On October 29, 1972, Dale Eidsvig, and his partner, had slowed to nearly a stop enroute to an emergency when the vehicle was struck by a car. The impact threw the ambulance on its side, throwing Eidsvig from his seat and out the door, with the vehicle landing on top of him. He was 45 years old and left a wife and three children. Dale Eidsvig was the first Hennepin County EMT killed in the line of duty.<br /> <br /> Many years have passed since Dale's fatal accident but those who remember him, more often than not, remember him with a smile on his face. He was a glass-half-full sort of guy. In the many cards the family received at the time of his death, many wrote of how Dale touched their lives.<br /> <br /> Honored 2011