Thomas W. Wolfarth, 42, leader among Delco EMTs

Thomas W. "Wolfie" Wolfarth, 42, of Havertown, vice president of the Delaware County Emergency Health Services Council, died Monday at Delaware County Memorial Hospital of complications from a brain tumor.

Delaware County Memorial was one of the hospitals at which he worked during his 22-year career. Since 1999, Mr. Wolfarth also had been working with PennSTAR, the medevac program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mayor John F. Street sent Mr. Wolfarth a letter of commendation on June 7, 2002, for his work in rescuing a worker trapped in a cave-in at 6411 Woodcrest Ave.

"Upon arrival," Street wrote, Mr. Wolfarth's team from a PennSTAR Flight unit "found a bleeding worker approximately 15 feet below grade in an unshored excavation.

"The victim did not speak English, was pinned just below his shoulder level and in grave danger from the constantly shifting soil . . .

"Finally, after 71/2 hours of painstaking digging, the worker was removed from the trench . . . [and] medevaced to an awaiting trauma center, and eventually made a full recovery."

It was one of several commendations, said his brother Ronald, who described him as a gentle giant who loved life.

Mr. Wolfarth graduated from Conestoga High School in Berwyn in 1986, earned his emergency medical technician certificate in 1990, and became a paramedic in 1997.

As an EMT, Mr. Wolfarth worked at a private ambulance company in Guthriesville, Chester County, in the early 1990s, then as a paramedic at Chester County Hospital in West Chester, and Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby.

In 2004, he became the director of paramedics at Springfield Hospital in Delaware County, and in 2006, he took the same role at Delaware County Memorial in Drexel Hill.

Mr. Wolfarth enjoyed fishing, motorcycles, traveling, and sports, namely the Phillies. His companion of two years, Mary Agnes Boyle, described him as extremely humble and friendly.

"He could completely light up and take over a room," she said. "He loved to laugh."

In addition to his brothers Ronald and Boyle, Mr. Wolfarth is survived by his father, Theodore; mother, Ruth; daughter, Allison; three brothers; a sister; former wife, Laurie; and nieces and nephews.

Calling hours at the Donohue Funeral Home, 8401 West Chester Pike, Upper Darby, will be today from 8:30 to 9:15 a.m., followed by a 10 a.m. Funeral Mass at St. Mathias Church, 128 Bryn Mawr Ave., Bala Cynwyd. Burial will be in SS. Peter and Paul Cemetery, Marple Township.