McAllan Will Be Missed

For those who dealt with Richard McAllan over the years, his phone greeting—"McAllan here"—had a bit of a double edge. It usually meant he was calling to report what he perceived as some new affront by a mayoral administration—any mayoral administration— against his colleagues at the Emergency Medical Service, and that he was also going to supply you with more documents than could be readily digested without neglecting all other work.

But Mr. McAllan, who died March 28 following complications from heart surgery at age 58, rarely made complaints without good cause. He was hardly a diplomat—which explains why the members of Emergency Medical Service Local 2507 of District Council 37, despite blanching at what they felt was second-tier status among emergency personnel, gave him only one term as president in the late 1980s.

In some ways, though, his lack of official status was a blessing to those who succeeded him in office over the past two decades. While they engaged in the mix of quarreling and cooperation needed to persuade city officials to improve the status of their members, Mr. McAllan did the strident advocacy work. He called to attention some of the sordid political details of the city's increased reliance on private ambulance services. He also sounded the alarm about a flawed Fire Department communications system that later contributed to the deaths of many firefighters on Sept. 11.

It is a measure of his crusading personality that, while he gave cause to more than a few people not to always be glad to hear from him, many of those same people are going to miss him, and hope someone carries on his advocacy.