MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — One of Manatee County’s long-time EMS assistant chiefs is retiring this week after decades of service to the community.

Assistant Chief Larry Luh and Michael Kelly are saying their goodbyes after years of working together.

“Twenty years with us,” Luh said.

Luh is retiring after more than 45 years in public service 36 years of that was serving with Manatee County EMS.

“Helping people is probably the best answer to why I do what I do,” he said.

He first started as a paramedic at the age of 26, but his interest started long before that, when he was a teenager.

“Myself and some friends would ride to those calls and go to a fire or a car fire, whatever the call may be,” Luh said.

As assistant chief of operations, he checks on his teams of paramedics. On this day, they are learning to drive a new ambulance.

After the team completes their training, Luh takes it for a spin one last time.

“Like our staff would drive it, I have to do to everything they do I have to do too,” he said.

As Luh heads back to his office, he explains why he feels this is a good time to retire.

“I feel like I have trained and educated and mentored and coached all the people that work for me and with me to the best that I could and be leaving them in a better place, so I feel relieved for all of that I’ve done,” he said.

One important thing he wants the next generation of paramedics to remember is the importance of keeping up with technology, because it's changed so much over the years.

“I used to have to do manual compressions on patients and now we go into the technology era,” Luh said.

He’s hopeful that with the knowledge he’s passed on combined with the latest technology, others will be able to follow in his footsteps and serve the county with long careers.