A former Everett mayor helped save a man. He didn’t realize he knew him.

Published 5:30 am Saturday, February 14, 2026

EVERETT — At first, Everett’s longest-serving mayor didn’t recognize the man on the sidewalk he performed CPR on just over a week ago. But it turned out it wasn’t the first time the two had crossed paths.

On Feb. 4, Ray Stephanson, who spent six years on the Everett City Council in the 1980s and was mayor of the city for 14 years, from 2003 to 2017, thought Matthew Minahan, the man walking down the street, was a stranger. But Minahan, years before, had worked as a nurse caring for Stephanson’s father near the end of his life.

Stephanson said he was walking from his downtown Everett apartment complex to his job, working as the CEO of Economic Alliance Snohomish County, just before 8 a.m. on Feb. 4 when he saw someone in front of him stumble. Minahan fell on his face, Stephanson said. He tried to stand up and walk, tripped over his backpack then fell down again. He tried to stand up a third time before falling onto the sidewalk.

Stephanson called 911. The operator asked him to watch for Minahan’s breathing. Stephanson didn’t know it at the time, but Minahan was having a heart attack.

“I saw one breath,” Stephanson said in an interview Tuesday. “She said, ‘Tell me when the next one is.’ I’m waiting, waiting when she says ‘There’s not another breath?’”

The operator on the line calmly directed Stephanson to roll Minahan on his back and start doing CPR. He continued for some time — it’s hard to say how long, Stephanson said, maybe five to seven minutes — before paramedics arrived and took over.

“I guess you never know how you’re going to react,” Stephanson said. “But when somebody is in distress like that, it really doesn’t matter what the situation is. If you can help someone, I feel a strong obligation that a person needs to do that.”

Stephanson heard the paramedics say that Minahan had a heartbeat. They then took him to the hospital, and Stephanson tried to continue with his day.

“I went to work and broke down in tears,” Stephanson said. “I was sort of that way all day.”

Minahan’s partner, Chris Bruce, first suspected something was wrong when he left his apartment in the morning to go to work and saw Minahan’s glasses lying on the sidewalk. He then saw his partner’s car parked outside, got worried, and called Minahan’s boss.

That’s when Bruce learned Minahan had showed up at work, but his boss had sent him back home as he looked awful, Bruce said. While Bruce was on the phone with Minahan’s place of work, he got the call from a surgeon at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett that an ambulance had brought Minahan in and he was in surgery.

“It was very frightening,” Bruce said. “A lot of emotions, you know — terrifying, frightening.”

Stephanson later called someone at the city, not asking for particulars but just to check if the man he helped on the sidewalk had survived. A few hours later, Stephanson got a call saying Minahan was alive and in the hospital.

What Stephanson wasn’t yet aware of was that Minahan worked as a nurse and had taken care of Stephanson’s father near the end of his life about 10 years earlier. Stephanson got the news when Bruce called him out of the blue later that day.

Bruce told Stephanson that his actions had helped saved his partner’s life. But he also added that the two had once known each other a decade prior.

“My father was there [at the hospital] until he passed away, and Matthew was his nurse,” Stephanson said. “He remembers me from going up to visit my dad.”

“That was kind of this really cool, cosmic turn of events type of thing,” Bruce said. “It was really cool to put all of that together.”

Stephanson didn’t immediately recognize Minahan while helping him on the street. His father was in the hospital about a decade prior and had lots of nursing staff looking after him. But Stephanson remembered how Minahan helped his father while he was hospitalized.

“He was so very kind to my dad,” Stephanson said of Minahan. “So I was kind of blown away. It just sort of feels like this part of my life has kind of come full circle. I was happy to be there to help him.”

Minahan is currently recovering at home, Bruce said.

Bruce hoped to stress the importance of getting regular heart checkups if people have a family history of cardiac problems. Minahan was not yet 40 years old. In their nine years dating each other, the two would often travel and play sports, Bruce said.

“We do all the things that you think people under 40 should have no problem doing, and never once thought that maybe you should go have an echocardiogram because there’s a family history of a heart attack,” Bruce said.

Bruce also hoped to spread the word about learning how to perform CPR properly. The surgeon at the hospital told him that whoever did the chest compressions — Stephanson — did it right, cracking some of Minahan’s ribs in the process.

“Doing CPR properly, sometimes it’s going to result in broken bones,” Bruce said. “And that’s OK if it saves the person’s life.”

Stephanson and Bruce have now talked a few times and remain in touch. When Minahan is feeling better, Stephanson hopes to meet with him.

“He’s always been a public servant in terms of public health,” Bruce said of his partner, Minahan. “He’s worked in public health his entire life … He’s grateful to the people at Providence, and Ray, and everyone who helped save his life.”

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.