09/30/2025
Please join us in congratulating EVTCC Board Member, Al Conkle, for being selected to receive the 2025 William F. Foster Outstanding Service Award!
This year’s recognition is the first time the award has been presented following the passing of its namesake, William F. Foster—a pioneer in emergency vehicle technician training whose vision and leadership shaped the standards we uphold today.
Al Conkle’s lifelong commitment to excellence and safety reflects the very ideals that his friend Bill Foster championed throughout his career, making this award all the more meaningful.
Al had this to say about receiving the honor: It is indeed the highest of honors to receive this Bill Foster Award! I am humbled and can just hope to live up to expectations of this honor!
Bill and I had a great personal relationship and shared common goals to make the Fire Service safer, reducing Line of Duty Deaths created by Emergency Vehicles and or poor maintenance.
The NTSB started tracking these in 1977. In the late 1980’s NTSB was recording 33% of the LODD’s to Emergency Vehicles. The International Fire Chiefs were approached by the NTSB. What resulted was that the IChief’s formed a Maintenance Section. From there training , testing and NAEVT were formed. It became evident that Training and Testing needed to be separated . EVTCC was then formed . A brief history of EVTCC was given along with some numbers of EVT’s and several years of accomplished goals and certifications up to 2024. Also noted that Emergency Vehicles related LODD’s were reduced to 13% according to 2025 NFPA Statistics! That is evidence that the EVT’s in this room and Nationwide along with Canada have reduced LODD’s by more than 50%! From 33% to 13%!
I also discussed the role that Bill Foster, Boyd Cole , Jim Bland, and several other Big Hitters played in convincing NFPA to institute a Standard for Emergency Vehicles! The original NFPA 1915 along with 1071 took affect in 2000. We finally had a NFPA Standard that the Fire Chief could utilize to help justify Maintenance, Testing, and EVT Techs! NFPA 1915 was later incorporeal into 1911 and then 1911 and 1071 became NFPA1910 in 2022!
In 2024 there were 8901 EVT Exams were given! 52% of the Exams were proctored at Special Events such as the Spartan FTTC and State Training Events.
What separates the EVT from other Techs is the Passion, Training, Certification and understanding it MUST be done right the First Time! Attention to Detail!
It’s not what you take out of this world but it is what you leave behind that really counts! Bill Foster left this legacy behind “ Spartan FTTC” “ Truck Broke, Fix It”! - Al Conkle
FROM THE ARTICLE: At the awards ceremony at the 2025 Fire Truck Training Conference, Jeff Seal, director of sales for Spartan Chassis and MC for the evening, began his introduction for the William F. Foster Outstanding Service Award by recognizing its namesake, Bill Foster. “Bill’s presence is still felt here today even though we lost him on January 1 of this year. His legacy lives on in every one of these conferences.” Seal said that each year, the conference takes the time to recognize a person who has had a positive impact on training and being what Foster visualized as a trainer. Seal explained that this year’s recipient, Al Conkle, started his career in the 1960s as a diesel mechanic for Detroit Diesel, advancing to service tech engineer in the1970s. In the 1980s, he was a master EVT and in the 1990s joined Foster at the FTTC, becoming, according to Seal, one of the most recognized trainers. During his time with the FTTC, he was instrumental in furthering the knowledge of EVTs across the U.S. and North America.
https://www.fireapparatusmagazine.com/fire-apparatus/william-f-foster-award-for-excellence-winner-and-evt-of-the-year-announced-at-fttc/
