Category: News || By Staff Report

Police, firefighters, paramedics and other personnel saluted Ed Coulter this morning during his final journey through the city he loved.

Coulter, 73, died Monday at Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Jefferson Hills borough. For six years, Coulter was the city's Emergency Management Coordinator and had just completed McKeesport's official "hazard assessment plan" for submission to Allegheny County.

"It was one of his final acts on behalf of the city," Mayor Mike Cherepko said this week. The mayor and several other city officials wore green and white ribbons in Coulter's memory during Wednesday's council meeting.

A graduate of Penn State University and an accountant by training, Coulter was owner of upscale men's clothing stores in McKeesport, Altoona, Indiana and Johnstown before his retirement in 1990. But his real legacy may be his role in helping to establish the McKeesport Ambulance Rescue Service after the former McKeesport Emergency Medical Service filed for bankruptcy.

"He saved an ambulance service for McKeesport at a time when we were in danger of losing it," City Council President Darryl Segina said.

McKeesport Hospital named Coulter its "Outstanding Volunteer of the Year Award" for his contributions to emergency medical services. At the time of his death, Coulter remained chairman of the McKeesport Ambulance Authority.

Coulter's role as the city's Emergency Management Coordinator was an unpaid job until 2010, when council approved a $10,000 allocation designed to cover office and travel expenses. Cherepko said that Coulter had saved taxpayers "hundreds of thousands of dollars" by seeking out state and federal money to cover the McKeesport's response to blizzards, flooding and other natural disasters.

"I have lost a great friend and a mentor," Cherepko said.

Born in McKeesport in 1938, Coulter was the son of the late George and Eliza Law Coulter. He is survived by his wife, Jewell Petach Coulter; daughters Janice Altmiller and Jennifer Gault; son Edwin D. Coulter Jr.; and grandchildren and one great-grandchild. A former member of the McKeesport Jaycees, Kiwanis, Lions and Rotary clubs, Coulter had also served on the board of Mon-Yough Community Services and was treasurer of the McKeesport Housing Authority at the time of his death.

A Mass of Christian burial was celebrated this morning at Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church. Burial arrangements were in charge of Striffler's of White Oak.

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