Lehi People
Heritage Day: Couple leaves their mark on Lehi’s EMS, elementary education
Lehi Historical Society
Editor’s Note: The Lehi Historical Society is proud to present the stories of its Lehi Heritage Day 2024 honorees. The story of Rick “Howie” and Susan Howard is the second of eight articles featuring this year’s honorees. Each couple will be celebrated at Lehi Heritage Day on Monday, Sept. 2, from 2:30-6 p.m., at the Legacy Center at 123 N. Center St. For more information on Lehi Heritage Day, see lehihistory.com or call 801-768-1570.
The Lehi community has greatly benefited from Rick and Susan Howard’s career choices. Interestingly, some of those important choices were influenced by great hardship.
On July 9, 1982, the Howards were blessed with their first child, Derick Barnes Howard. Unfortunately, he had a major heart defect known as Tetralogy of Fallot with a missing pulmonary valve. He spent his short life at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City and passed away on Oct. 23, 1982. Because of the “education” both received while in the hospital with Derick, Rick changed his career pursuit to Emergency Medical Services and Firefighting.
Rick, also known as “Howie,” became certified as an emergency medical technician in 1985 and began running ambulance calls for Lehi City Ambulance. For approximately 10 years, he worked as a full-time Emergency Room nurse at American Fork Hospital and was the training officer for Lehi City Fire and EMS. When he took a position at LDS Hospital’s Emergency Room, a level-one trauma center, he continued taking calls for Lehi City Fire and EMS.
When Lehi City was ready to open its second fire station in 2009, Rick was hired as the first Lehi City Fire and EMS Battalion Chief. His initial assignment was to implement a paramedic program. During this time, Rick, with the help of his medical director, implemented policies that allowed paramedics to read EKGs and, based on their interpretation, bypass the closest hospital to transport cardiac patients to cardiac centers. Lehi was the first department in Utah County to be allowed to implement the new policy.
Rick served as chairman of the Utah County EMS Committee and represented all Utah County Fire and EMS departments on the Hospital Trauma Committee. He retired from Lehi City Fire and EMS in 2017.
He is currently employed as a faculty member at Utah Valley University’s paramedic program. He was recently part of a team from UVU Emergency Services and the Utah National Guard that set up an EMT program for the Kingdom of Morocco. He has received numerous awards and recognitions for his work in the field of prehospital emergency medicine.
Susan Barnes Howard got her first teaching job at Meadow Elementary in Lehi. It was always her dream to teach in Lehi. Third grade was her favorite, but she taught second through fourth grades during her 32-year career. After 23 years at Meadow, her principal opened Fox Hollow Elementary and convinced Susan to be her “teacher on special assignment,” similar to a vice principal.
However, after four years, she missed the students and returned to teaching third grade. She loved her students, and they loved her. Even today, she has former students in their 40s stop by to say hi. Without fail, she remembers their names and the kind of student they were. Interestingly, they were “all good students.”
Today, she is an instructor with Just for Kids/HIVEs, an educational activity program for adults with disabilities. She also serves in the Mount Timpanogos Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Susan was born in Provo to Reldon and Rozanne Barnes in 1959 and raised in Lehi. She was the second of five children. Rick was also born in 1959 but in Santa Monica, Calif. His parents had two children of their own and then adopted 19 children. He was the second adopted child.
Rick and Susan met on a blind date on Feb. 14, 1978, and went dancing at the Colonial House on Lehi Main Street. In addition to Derick, the couple has four children—Brandon (Belinda), Eric (Kristieann), Cameron and Kylie Ash (Clint)—and 12 grandchildren.
