Thousands of people owe John Taylor their lives.
When a young boy was stuck on a rock in the middle of a rain-swollen river, Taylor came to the rescue. He did it again when a diabetic Boy Scout nearly died after forgetting to take his insulin. He did it again when a man fell 15 feet onto a rocky shore.
Taylor was their hero.
For nearly a quarter-century, Taylor oversaw search-and-rescue operations for the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, leading countless missions to find missing hikers and save injured climbers.
"If I were lost in the woods, I would want John Taylor coming to find me," Sheriff Rick Bart said Monday. "He’s the kind of guy who put his heart and soul into his work. It was his whole life."
Taylor, who retired in 1997, died Friday after suffering a heart attack and battling Parkinson’s disease. He was 60.
The former sergeant and Vietnam veteran was the stuff of legends, a man who was embarrassed by the national and state honors he received.
When Taylor started, rescue missions were largely undertaken by untrained, underequipped deputies and volunteers. By the time he retired, the county had a well-organized search-and-rescue unit with dozens of volunteers and a small fleet of helicopters.
"John was instrumental in making search-and-rescue operations into what they are today and in helping turn this into what I think is one of the best rescue organizations in the state," said Ken Lakey, president of Snohomish County Volunteer Search and Rescue.
Taylor was just 17 when he made his first rescue in July 1961. He was working at a lodge in Monte Cristo, the former mining town east of Granite Falls, when deputies asked for his help.
A woman climbing a steep hillside had been struck by a tumbling rock that shattered her leg. Taylor, who knew the surrounding hills better than anyone, helped bring her down.
Taylor joined the sheriff’s office in 1968, the day after he left the Army. He took over search and rescue in 1973, and found ways to get equipment, including amphibious troop transports, hovercraft and helicopters.
Taylor even helped the New York Police Department get two helicopters and taught officers how to rappel from them. In exchange, they taught Taylor to fly and gave him enough flight time to get his license.
But Taylor was best known for his rescues, such as the one about 30 years ago that earned him a presidential citation from President Nixon.
A young boy was stranded on a rock in the middle of a river swollen by Snohomish River runoff. Taylor worked his way out to the boy, but couldn’t get him safely back to shore before dark, Lakey recalled.
"John stayed on that rock all night and held the young man in his arms to keep him warm," saving the boy’s life, Lakey said.
By the time Taylor got out he had hypothermia and had to spend a day or two in the hospital.
"That’s the kind of guy he was. He had nine lives and probably used 12 or 15 of them throughout his search-and-rescue career," Lakey said.
Even after Taylor retired, he continued aiding searchers, said sheriff’s Sgt. Danny Wikstrom, who coordinates search-and-rescue operations.
"Right up until the time John really began to get ill, we would be on tough searches, and I would call him in the middle of the night and ask him to come to the scene and go over our search plans with us," Wikstrom said. "John was such a depth of information. He’d look at the map and say, ‘I’d look over here if I were you.’ "
Taylor was usually right. His decades of experience and encyclopedic knowledge of the Cascades often quickly led him to missing people, Wikstrom said.
Bart recalled how Taylor and volunteers searched for days a decade ago near Granite Falls to find a boy who was lost. Taylor wouldn’t give up, the sheriff said.
"They finally found him alive down in a canyon," Bart said. "If they wouldn’t have found him on that day, I don’t think he would have made it."
In October 2001, search-and-rescue volunteers and the sheriff’s office named an operations base on Old Machias Road east of Snohomish "Taylor’s Landing," in honor of Taylor. Bart also said he’ll likely rename the deputy of the year award for Taylor.
Taylor is survived by his wife, Lonna, son Bill, and daughter Lynnette Smith, as well as his mother, Alice, and brothers George and Ray.
"John Taylor was one-of-a-kind," sheriff’s spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen said. "His caring and compassion will never be forgotten."
Reporter Katherine Schiffner: 425-339-3436 or schiffner@heraldnet.com.
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