Boeing employee Gil Tumey has been elected president of the King County Search & Rescue Association.

'In touch'

with the outdoors



Volunteer's efforts helps

save lives in the wildernes

   By Mark Ziegler
   Boeing News

   He's a man of the mountains who doesn't ski, hike or climb.
   Instead, Gil Tumey helps save people's lives.

   Tumey, a member of the People Focus team within Shared
   Services Group Computing & Networking Operations in Bellevue,
   Wash., works with thousands of other volunteers in the Puget
   Sound region to find those who have been injured or lost their
   way in the wilderness.

   As others comb for missing snowshoers, kayakers or sometimes
   clues to a crime, you'll likely find Tumey nearby in the 24-foot-long
   King Country Search & Rescue van. Inside the mobile command
   post, he studies maps, communicates with aircraft and field teams
   and handles other vital coordination functions in support of the
   King County Sheriff's Office.

"There are the missions where we go to save lives, and the missions where we go to bring closure," Tumey said. His fellow volunteers "buy all their own gear, spend a lot of their own time preparing, risk their own lives, and give their coats and sleeping bags to people who need them."

Although he grew up "in the woods" outside Cincinnati, Tumey didn't really rediscover the outdoors until 1994. That's when he heard about the horrific wildfires on the eastern side of Washington's Cascade Mountains and offered to help with logistics, such as radio communications.

Tumey later helped start the King County Emergency Operations Center Support Team, which assists the county's Office of Emergency Management in preparing for and responding to disasters.

"The organizational skills and acumen Gil uses every day at Boeing gives him transferable skills that he's brought here -- a knowledge of how an organization works, how to run a meeting and how to organize," said Eric Holdeman, manager of the King County Office of Emergency Management. "He does this so well that if he's gone, it all still works."

In January, Tumey took on a new challenge when he was elected president of the King County Search & Rescue Association, made up of 10 search-and-rescue units representing more than 2,000 volunteers.

Track down Tumey and you'll find a husband and the father of two -- both qualified in search and rescue -- with the ever-present pager clipped to his belt, ever ready to answer the call for help.

"Every time you go out," he said, "there's something that grabs you and says 'This is important stuff -- this is beyond me and for someone else.'"