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At only 9 years old, Julian Stanley Wise watched two men drown in the Roanoke River, a scene he never forgot.
Courtesy of the Historical Society of Western Virginia
Circa 1930 image shows the original members of the Roanoke Life Saving and First Aid Crew.
In 1909, a 9-year-old boy stood along the banks of the Roanoke River and watched a tragedy unfold. Two men were struggling in the water, as the canoe they were in had capsized. Adult onlookers heard the men screaming and stood helplessly as the men gasped for breath. As the river swirled around its victims, the men disappeared beneath the water and drowned. No one along the river knew how to swim or to provide aid. The scene of that event imbedded itself deep into the memory of the young boy such that 20 years later, Julian Stanley Wise decided to launch our nation’s first all-volunteer rescue squad.
Wise worked at the Norfolk & Western Railway and recruited nine co-workers to form in May 1928 the Roanoke Life Saving and First Aid Crew. The crew’s initial mission was water safety and rescue. Using scant resources and equipment, such as a Pulmotor, Lungmotor, a boat and some grappling hooks, the crew responded to three calls during its first year.
Meeting one night a month at the Motive Power Building of the N&W, the crew studied and practiced first aid, using manuals from the American Red Cross and homemade equipment. In time, the crew earned instructor certificates and provided training to Roanoke police officers, firemen and ambulance drivers (the drivers and ambulances being from funeral homes in those days).
Courtesy of Roanoke Public LIbraries, Virginia Room
Julian Stanley Wise
The crew staged a mock rescue using a 250-pound dummy for Roanoke officials that resulted in the city contributing $300 to the crew for supplies and communication support. Oakey’s Funeral Service donated an old Cadillac ambulance which the crew retrofitted for rescue operations. Prior to the donation of the ambulance, the men had used Wise’s roadster.
In 1930, the Roanoke Life Saving and First Aid Crew received a charter from the Red Cross and formal endorsement from the Roanoke Academy of Medicine. Calls had dramatically increased to 56 that year. Ever resourceful, Wise recruited nine more men to join as volunteers and persuaded Oakey’s Funeral Service to provide a dedicated space over its Kirk Avenue garage for the men to meet and store equipment. Oakey’s was home to the crew for the next few decades.
The mission of the crew expanded in the early 1930s to more than water rescues. The demand for emergency responses to other medical events necessitated the crew to train in the use of oxygen tents, a portable machine that could be used in homes and hospitals. In 1932, the squad purchased a Ford truck and was donated a Paige touring car to create a fleet of response vehicles. Rubber boats were replaced with metal boats hauled using a homemade trailer.
Over the course of the 1930s and ’40s, the Roanoke Life Saving and First Aid Crew’s reputation grew well beyond Roanoke, such that other communities in Virginia were asking Wise to help establish crews in their localities. By 1948, Wise and his squad had helped start 24 other rescue squads.
During this period, Roanoke notched another first in the rescue squad movement. In December 1941, two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Alexander Terrell formed the Hunton Life Saving and First Aid Crew, our nation’s first all-Black volunteer rescue squad. Terrell spearheaded the effort in the fear that should Roanoke suffer a military attack, there would be insufficient manpower to respond to the emergency, especially in the Black community during the days of segregated medical care. Wise worked with Terrell to provide training and support, and the men became close friends.
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The story above is a preview from our January/February 2026 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!