Bob Ramsey is President of Starwest Associates and the Ramsey Social Justice Foundation. Bob found his signature EMS calling early in life at the age of 13; he was discussed in an article in Boy’s Life Magazine in 1957 for implementing an emergency bicycle response team in his South Phoenix neighborhood. Today, he is regarded by many as, “one of the fathers and pioneer’s of modern EMS and ambulance service”. 
Bob has been an active community and business leader for over 40 years, founding companies in a variety of fields: ambulance services in Arizona and throughout the Southwest, medical supplies, air freight transportation in western US, information technologies and management systems, real estate and avionics.
Bob pioneered, designed, and implemented one of the first EMS private/public partnership EMS models in the US from the early 1980’s to today. Many of those high performance fire department models continue today with various municipalities in Arizona and across the nation for dedicated 911 emergencies and out of hospital Health and “Treat & Refer” response services.
A recognized leader of emergency medical systems, Bob’s success can be credited to his dedication to serving others’ needs. His ability to design, implement and provide innovations of high performance and clinical EMS services that implement seamless technologies for measurement interventions, and apply them in overall efficient caring logistics to the areas of clinical service delivery for the patients and responders needs, while focusing on community based responsibilities, for all communities, urban, rural, Reservation.
He has voluntarily served as the Managing Editor of Indian Arizona, a publication of IDDA, as a board or council member of numerous public, civic and international community groups for decades. Bob fulfilled one of 3,600 Clinton Foundation Commitments for Action, specific to offer global cardiac healthcare.
Arizona State University’s Public Policy School for Executive Education named the Ramsey Executive Education School after Bob, an Alumnus of ASU. The School provides innovative professional development programs and customized services that build the capacity of people and organizations that serve the public.
May we encourage you to please read this article about Bob, and about our wonderful community:
“Arizonans owe much to those who came first”, by Richard DeUriarte
https://ramseyexecutive.asu.edu/
CARE BEYOND SURVIVAL
From Bob Ramsey, “After a dozen years or more of full participation in our annual deeply sad and moving Homeless Persons’ Memorial Services, it is our privilege to honor Vivienne Gellert, Mike McQuaid, Jeff Taylor, Circle the City, Caritas Law Group, Dignity Health, Valley Toyota Dealers, TAP/AZ, Arizona State University, The Human Services Campus,, as they offer, in the blessed memory of Elaine Herzberg (our homeless neighbor who was senselessly run down and killed), the first health navigation and transportation system for our homeless and underserved:”
From Jenny Norton: “God’s highest blessings to our beloved departed Elaine Herzberg in Glory; she will always be in our hearts, as we walk alongside many to ‘memorialize her life through a service that will directly touch the lives of many other homeless individuals.’”
Bob with Dean Jonathan Koppell, ASU
During four decades, seven Governors have appointed Bob to serve on various Boards and Commissions:
- Arizona Department of Health Services Emergency Medical Services Council.
- Executive Committee for the EMS
- Governor’s 9/11 Memorial Commission
- Governor’s Business Advisory Council
- Arizona Public Safety Broadband Network
A Few Listed Awards:
- National lifetime achievement prestigious award “the Gathering of the Eagles”, 2010
- EMS State of Innovation and Science, 2012.
- Guiding Light Award, Tempe Community Council, 2014
- Fulfilled one of 3600 Clinton Foundation/CGI Commitments for Global Cardiac Health – 2014
- Arizona -Mexico Commission Health Award, 2014
- Arizona Business Journal, Health Hero Award 2012
- Martin Luther King, Jr./ASU Gammage Servant Leadership Award, 2012 (jointly with Jenny)
- Cesar Chavez Legacy Lifetime Award, 2011 (jointly with Jenny)
- Spirit of Tempe Lifetime Award, Tempe Chamber of Commerce, 2010 (jointly with Jenny)
- Pride of LGBTQ Champion Award, Equality Arizona, 2014 (jointly with Jenny)
- Tree of Life Award, Jewish National Fund, 2011 (jointly with Jenny)
- Anti-Defamation League Brooks Community Leadership Award, 2013 (jointly with Jenny)
- Central Arizona Shelter Services (CASS) Dignity for Our Homeless Neighbors Lifetime Award, 2018 (jointly with Jenny)
- Arizona State University Urban Forest Champion Award, 2019 (jointly with Jenny)
Above photos: A Lifetime of Activism for our Family of Humanity:
Jenny Norton, Article: Inaugural human rights activism during her teenage years ~1964 ~ supporting President John F. Kennedy (where she earned a J. Edgar Hoover-launched FBI Dossier); Bob Ramsey, Governor’s 9-11 Memorial Commission ~2001, 2002; Jenny Norton, Arizona Fallen Firefighters Memorial Commission – Legislative Author, ~1987, 2014~ Dedications, Arizona State Capitol, Wesley Bolin Park, Phoenix, Arizona.
Above photos: Lifelong friends and ardent colleagues of our Foundation stand with Bob and Jenny: Lance Fuqua, Frank Flowers, Gina Inorio, Marc Chambers – Ramsey Social Justice Foundation, Ramsey Community Services Foundation.
Jenny Norton is an ordained minister and endorsed chaplain. She serves her denomination as an Associate Minister of Social Justice. Jenny (Rev. Jenny Norton) has also been denominationally endorsed as a prison chaplain and hospital chaplain. After serving for 18 years as the Auxiliary Chaplain for the Arizona State Department of Corrections, the keystone of her service became a small community hospital, Tempe St. Luke’s Hospital.
At Tempe St. Luke’s Hospital, Jenny helped to develop and manage a pastoral care fund to provide respite care for homeless patients discharged to the streets, and a voucher program to provide required prescribed medications for indigent and/or homeless patients who need medicine upon discharge, and free mammograms for the underinsured, uninsured and undocumented.
A graduate of Arizona State University with a degree in Justice Studies and Social Inquiry/Religious Studies, and of Fuller Theological Seminary (M.A.T.), Jenny, whose career has been in public affairs and community service, also served our state during the 1980’s as an Arizona State Representative. She sponsored and codified legislation to revise Arizona’s State Energy Policy, to authorize an industrial tax credit for child and adult daycare, to mandate use of clean fuels, to create corrections programs of home arrest and youthful offender program, and to rewrite the state’s energy policy, as well as to authorize ground water recharge. During her terms in the 1980’s, she also personally authored and codified a fallen firefighter survivor benefit law, a child labor law, a Native American rights law, co-primed our Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday mandate, and scribed and codified a law toward parental consent.
Boards and Commissions:
Jenny also had also served her city as a Tempe City Board Member from 1984 through 2008, a member of the City of Tempe Industrial Development Authority Board, a mayoral appointment. She is a five- decades-long volunteer and Board Member of the Tempe Community Action Agency; served The Military Academy Selection Committee (A Congressional Appointment), 1988-1992; Member – Tempe Leadership’s Founding Council, 1986; served as president, vice president and secretary of Tempe St. Luke’s Hospital Auxiliary Board; Board Member emeritus of the Tempe Community Council; the Tempe Salvation Army; the Arizona Firefighters & Emergency Paramedics Governor’s Memorial Commission; trustee emeritus of Life Pacific College; Board Member of New Course: Engaging Women to Reduce Poverty and Environmental Degradation; President, Vice-President of advisory board of Compadre High School (Tempe Union High School District’s Alternative School).
A Few Listed Awards:
Arizona State University Urban Forestry Champion Award, 2019 (jointly with Bob)- Central Arizona Shelter Services (CASS) Dignity for Our Homeless Neighbors Lifetime Award, 2018 (jointly with Bob)
- City of Tempe State of the Neighborhoods Award – Sustainability, 2018
- Arizona State University Founders Day Alumni Lifetime Award – Sustainability, 2015
- Fulfilled one of 3600 Clinton Foundation/CGI Commitments for Sustainable Neighborhoods, 2013-2018
- ICFG Denomination/Twenty-Five Year Worthy of Service Award, 2015
- Arizona Fallen Firefighters Commission, 1988 – 2015
- Phoenix Union High School Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award, 2013
- Arizona State University Gammage Martin Luther King, Jr. Service Award, 2012 (jointly with Bob)
- Cesar Chavez Legacy Lifetime Award, 2011 (jointly with Bob)
- Spirit of Tempe Lifetime Award, Tempe Chamber of Commerce, 2010 (jointly with Bob)
- Arizona State University Hall of Fame Induction, 2007
- Co-founder, underwriter, and Chair of I-HELP, Interfaith Homeless Emergency Program, TCAA, Norton and Ramsey Center, 2007, detailed below.
- Cooling Relief Center “Jenny’s Trailer” for our City’s unhoused named for her in 2020, reflecting her trailer park childhood
- Tempe Community Action Agency Service in Action Award, 2006
- National Woman of the Year in Criminal Justice, 2000
- Spirit of Philanthropy Honoree (Nominated by AFP’s CASA), 1995
- Military Academy Selection Committee: Congressional Appointment, 1988-1992
- Tempe St. Luke’s Hospital Woman of Distinction, 1988
- City of Tempe All America Woman, 1984
- Served in vocations of waitress, newspaper carrier, cashier, clerk, director, inaugurated elected policy-maker, ordained clergy member, 1959-Present
Decades ago, Jenny and Bob formed the Ramsey Social Justice Foundation, a community services foundation to provide grants and financial assistance to underrepresented communities as well as in support of health care projects, provide assistance for education and training for emergency service workers, and support community-based solutions for behavioral health care, particularly to at-risk and vulnerable population.
Among their many general donations and contributions, specifically within the medical community, they have donated 150 Automated External Defibrillators for emergency use throughout the valley and donated devices to help measure Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) to all fire services in Arizona. Their project Intiative’s in Arizona, Asia as well as Globally in the last 10 years on new methods in “Hands On CPR and Dispatch CPR protocol have been impactful.
J
enny and Bob oversee charitable work and engage in ministry for global sustainability, training chaplains for work with patients and inmates, providing shelter and affordable housing for those in need, as well as prioritizing all areas of care for children in need. Partnering with Habitat for Humanity of Central Arizona, Habitat for Humanity of Guatemala, the City of Tempe, Arizona State University, and the Clinton Foundation, the Ramsey Foundation has sustainably built and renovated 200 affordable homes with affordable utility bills, and are co-recipients of Tempe’s State of the Neighborhoods Award for sustainable construction and urban forestry.
For all the children of the world, including the fatherless, the homeless, the sick and injured, the fostered, the hungry and the helpless, Jenny and Bob give ultimate priority to wrapping their hearts around each one. During the holidays, they select gifts for the little ones of the poor, those in hardship, and inmates, through Prison Fellowship and Salvation Army. During summer, they facilitate sending children in need to summer camp.
Offering a helping hand to our underrepresented communities, Bob and Jenny provide scholarships, grants and fellowships to high schools, colleges, our Universities and Seminary.
Co-founders of Tempe Community Action Agency’s Interfaith Homeless Emergency Lodging Program, Bob and Jenny help underwrite costs for I-HELP. During 2017, the building that houses all of the Tempe Community Action Agency, was named the Norton And Ramsey Center. (We welcome you to read Lawn Griffiths’ wonderful history about each of our good-hearted I-HELP Founders here.) Additionally, they support the Boys and Girls Clubs valley- wide, and partner with the City of Tempe, Valley of the Sun United Way, and Circle the City to address homelessness.
As a retired member Central Arizona Shelter Services board of directors, Bob, with Jenny’s partnership, continues to work with CASS toward ending homelessness in our community.