Scotty Dodd’s firefighter and paramedic career brought a lot of good things to his life.
He was on the job when he met his wife of 13 years, Sharon Dodd. Mr. Dodd worked for an ambulance service that often responded to the nursing home for which she worked. He was in his element whenever he was on a fire truck or in the back of an ambulance, his aunt, Judy Young, said.
“When he was responding to an emergency call, whether it be a wreck or a fire, when the call went out, Scotty was at his peak,” she said. “The only thing he loved to do more was fish and hunt.”
Mr. Dodd, who lived in Cumming, worked for the Fulton County Fire Department for 28 years, and the Forsyth County Fire Department and several ambulance services in the metro Atlanta area, his aunt said. In 2008, Mr. Dodd had a heart attack that forced him into retirement, but he never lost his passion for rescue work.
“If he could have kept going, he would have,” Mrs. Young said.
Michael Scotty Dodd on Thursday went hunting with friends in Dawson County, and suffered a massive heart attack and died. He was 53. A funeral is scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday in the chapel of McDonald and Son Funeral Home. Burial will follow at Green Lawn Cemetery in Roswell. McDonald and Son Funeral Home & Crematory is in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Dodd was looking for experience in his chosen field before his graduation from Milton High School.
“I was working at one of the funeral homes then and he came up asking if he could ride with us,” said Randall Cagle, a Fulton County Fire Department captain. “Funeral homes ran ambulances in that day, so he came to us. I thought he was just a kid looking for something to do; but, no, he was cut out for this.”
Mr. Cagle, an elder at Shoal Creek Primitive Baptist Church and Mr. Dodd's captain in Fulton County, will deliver Mr. Dodd’s eulogy. He intends to stress Mr. Dodd’s dedication to his work.
“He wanted to save people, and he’d do whatever it took,” Mr. Cagle said.
In 2004, Mr. Dodd was one of three people who were credited with saving the life of another fire captain. Mr. Cagle said Dodd assessed the scene and did what was needed without hesitation.
“I might have been a little shaky in that situation, using equipment we’d be trained on but hadn’t had a lot of experience with, but not Scotty,” Mr. Cagle said. “He jumped in there and did what we could always count on Scotty to do, the best he could, and he saved a life that day.”
In addition to his wife, Mr. Dodd is survived by his daughters, Sarah Stalnaker of Charlottesville, Va., Paige Eustis of Baltimore, Md., Christa Lovelace of Ball Ground and Rene Dodd of Woodstock; his parents, Everett and Anne Dodd of Cumming, and a sister, Terri Murphy of Cumming.
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