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Paramedical VP, 1, Deceased 2014
July 27, 1951 - May 15, 2014
Cy was a dedicated teacher and avid s tudent in every aspect of his life. Not content to pass up any chance to learn and explore, his life was a long adventure, and a history of opportunities seized. After realizing the need for an EMS system in Eagle Nest, NM, and with zero previous experience, Cy took it upon himself to create one, an example of his firm faith that any problem could be solved if we are brave and hopeful enough to face it together. From a single ambulance in Eagle Nest grew a career that would eventually touch much of the state’s EMS community. Cy was a compassionate teacher, at CNM and UNM, who compelled his students and colleagues to do their best work through his own thoughtful and humble example. For almost 40 years Cy shared every success and mulled every challenge with his wife Jan, who he trusted and admired like no one else. He also spent the last 25 years joyfully raising his two children, Paul and Maren, supporting them in a way that was boundless. His love for his family was unflinching and unabashed, and he made sure it was celebrated every single day. Whether it was around the dinner table or in the classroom, Cy believed in learning the lessons life has to offer, embracing them rather than being afraid of them, even when they are hard. Please come help celebrate his life and lessons at a casual open house on Saturday, May 24, from 1-5pm. Please email celebratecy@gmail.com for directions. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the Cy Stockhoff Memorial Scholarship, to pay examination fees for EMS students-in-need taking the National Registry of EMTs practical examination, at www.cnm.edu/wtc.
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Sandra Spieker (Ringo)
I knew Cy, not very well, but we dated a couple of times after High School. I remember him as a very kind, intelligent and thoughtful person. When I researched for his obituary I found a couple of interesting links. One is of a lecture he gave to students wanting to become EMT's. This lecture is how to deliver the most tragic news a person will recieve, the news that someone you love has died.
http://w2imr.cnm.edu/Mediasite/Play/d01d07d1939d481c909a4d5567446eec1d
The next link is a blog that one of Cy's students posted the day after Cy passed away. It is a touching tribute to his caring attention to a student that Cy mentored.
http://transportjockey.com/
We lost a good man yesterday
NM EMS suffered a terrific blow yesterday. We lost one of our best educators, Cy Stockhoff. I met Cy close to seven years ago when he helped proctor one of my first practical exams for EMT-B. Then I got to have him when I attempted my EMT-I cert for the first time. The man knew what he was talking about, and always pushed for us students to question the norm and push to make our profession better.
Cy taught a good portion of my first try through paramedic school, and was my biggest supporter when I withdrew from the program and took my EMT-I exam instead. He told me that life will never let you follow your plans exactly, and that sometimes things happen and you have to make do as best you can.
The last time I saw him, it was a fun little reunion when I came by his office to ask about starting their degree program with my current paramedic cert. He remembers nearly all his students, it seems, and I was no exception. He asked me how it was going, and congratulated me on my paramedic cert and asked how I was liking my rural 911 service (I was in uniform at the time, so it was an easy jump).
Even then, he asked if I had thought about doing any further training and education, including getting my instructor certs. After those years away from being his student he still wanted me to do better than the status quo.
Cy, you’ve helped mentor me, helped me learn how this EMS thing works. You’ve made me question the ‘why’ about why we do things. I’m grateful to have been one of your students, and I will keep striving to be better, and to make our chosen profession better. Thank you for everything you’ve done for us. You’ve helped teach a state full of providers who will fight to the last, with what little we have to work with.
Last, I would like to offer a more pleasant memory of Cy, one of my own. Cy took me out to a movie sometime in 1970. I can pinpoint the year because of the name of the movie, which will never be forgotten. He must have been home for the summer, since he went to school in New Mexico. Cy took me to this movie on the recommendation of his best friend Bill Coleman. Bill told him there was this great movie, a perfect "date" movie and highly recommended that he take me to this particular flick. It was a practical joke, a big one. The name of the movie was, "The Boys in the Band". Look it up. Cy was mortified about 15 minutes into the flick, which was at the posh new North Park Movie Theater. He told me he was going to kill Bill (one of the first to use the term "Kill Bill). I assured him I was not offended, that it was a great joke and no worries on my part. Never the less, we left early. I can't recall much about the rest of the evening. Too much time has passed since then, except for one incident, after Cy dropped me off at home. I was about to turn off the porch light, when I noticed a tap, tap at the front door. Who was there? You guessed, Bill, laughing with his hand over his mouth. I told him Cy had a contract out for him and to watch his back. Good times, never forgotten.
Rick Wilber
Cy was a friend that I haven't seen since high school. Nice to now that he remained a good guy all these years.
Bill Coleman
Sandra, Cy asked for advice as to how to treat a girl well on the first date. I thought about it for a while. Seemed that the choice was between The Boys in The Band, an entertaining story about whimsical musicians, and Russ Meyer's Vixen, a film about one of the Civil War's more famous battles along the Mississippi River. I laid out the choices and let Cy choose. So what's your issue?
~ Kidding of course. But those were days filled with challenge and change, remember. The environmental movement had just begun. Vietnam was raging. The Cold War was still on and the arms race was a fact; it was only a matter of time before something went terribly wrong. Cy and I went to UNM just after the draft lottery began. We were roomies, subject to the second lottery during the summer between freshman and sophomore years. I drew a 326, Cy drew an 85. In those days anyone below 100 was almost certain to go to Vietnam. That didn't happen to Cy; the student strikes of 1970 meant the war would soon wind down and the pressure on new draftees would lessen. But we didn't know that at the time. Seemingly overnight, Cy confronted a life-changing possibility of being recruited into that awful war. Everything between us changed as Cy wrestled with his options. Sign up so he could choose his service branch? Go into ROTC and become an officer? Head to Canada and declare himself a conscientious objector? Or change majors and do pre-med classes...do something useful...in case the inevitable happened? All this was in his head, whereas I was untroubled by such things. I could tell it all weighed on him. When we went separate ways second half of sophomore year, Cy's attention to his studies waned. He was aimless. For a while he considered the clergy as a path in life. He did some traveling -- to Mexico, for example (a story that deserves several beers to fully tell). Finally he took time off from school to work on the cabin his parents had purchased in Eagles Nest, a tiny little hamlet in far northeastern New Mexico. He lived up there by himself for over a year, thru one of the coldest winters in memory. It was only years later that his interest in community affairs, helping people, and medicine all converged in the EMT program he began for the town of Eagles Nest. He brought that experience back to Albuquerque where his abilities as a mentor, teacher and care-giver made a difference to many in the EMT community. He began a family. And...interestingly...Cy's son Paul and my son Nathan have been schoolmates at UNM for the few years. The last time I saw Cy, in fact, was during a dinner he arranged for Nathan and Paul to meet, and for the two of us to reunite.
I wrote to our fellow ATO fraternity brothers at UNM the other day, in advance of the memorial to be held this coming Saturday. I can't make it; my niece is graduating from Chapman, my daughter (also at Chapman) is finishing her freshman year, and I have to manage the house while Claire's mother and brother help pack her up and bring her home over the weekend. But Nathan will attend the memorial and represent the family. Here is what I said to the ATOs:
'A memorial for Cy Stockhoff... I never imagined such a day -- unless it was part of some head-twisting news story embracing New Mexico madness and mayhem Cy had inadvertently become a part of. Surely that was the only way this man should have gone out. Remembering him, may there be tearful but joyous memories of a crazy man half-gone-sideways the other half a Saint. Rest in peace my brother, one of my Other Halves, my teacher and my muse. I love the man I once knew by the name of Cy. And his twin sister. And his mother and his father. May Jan, his wife, and offspring Maren and Paul never lose sight of the Stockhoff legacy.'
Bill Coleman
Bill Coleman
Below is Cy (left) with fraternity brothers Larry (top), Jon and Fred at the edge of the Mexican jungle in 1971 or '72. I have no idea who the girl is, or how she came to be in the photo...and I try not to think too hard about it.
Below is Cy during one of his EMT training sessions at Central NM State.
Cy and I talking with Jan Stockhoff in 2009 at the 40th reunion of UNM ATO alums in Albuquerque.
ATO pledges hamming it up in December 1970 after initiation. Cy is standing on the right, second row back.
Below is also from the 40th reunion party in Albuquerque. Fred Arfman, Reggie Kiester, Jon Kailey, Cy and me.