Terry Hoyt, 64
Terry Jane Hoyt, a volunteer emergency medical technician for many years and a former ambulance captain for the Bridgehampton Fire Department, died of cancer at home on Saturday. She was 64.
Ms. Hoyt has been credited with leading several advancements in emergency care for the department, including establishing and overseeing its E.M.S. first responder vehicle program that preceded its paid first responder program, lobbying for the purchase of mechanical CPR devices, and maintaining and handling training for the department’s firefighter rehabilitation vehicle.
Her family said she was also an integral part of a volunteer response system throughout East Hampton Town that, before fire departments started hiring paid providers, ensured that calls were answered.
Ms. Hoyt served as an assistant captain from 2011 to 2012 and as a captain from 2012 through 2014. In 2014 she was named the department’s captain of the year. She was also recognized by Suffolk County when she achieved 20 years of service, and was nominated for the 2014 Southampton Town Nancy Makson E.M.S. of Excellence Award.
“Terry Hoyt was a very fine and conscientious E.M.T.,” Bridgehampton Fire Chief Jeff White said. “Every call was an important call, and as captain everything was in order all the time. She will be missed.”
She was born on Sept. 3, 1952, in Ossining, N.Y., to Edward and Jane Hoyt. She grew up there and graduated from Ossining High School in 1969, going on to work for Union Carbide and Phelps Memorial Hospital. When her father became ill in 1979, Ms. Hoyt returned home to take care of her two younger brothers, raising them until they were finished with high school.
She moved to Southampton in 1989 and later to Bridgehampton. Her first position on the South Fork was with the Allan M. Schneider real estate firm, but in 1990 she got a job at Southampton Hospital, where over the course of 25 years she worked in various capacities, her favorite being registrar in the emergency room, a position she held for 17 years.
Ms. Hoyt joined the Bridgehampton Fire Department in 1993, following in the footsteps of her father, who had been a member of Ossining’s volunteer rescue squad.
“She was just that type of person, helping others before herself,” Philip Cammann, her husband of 19 years, said.
Ms. Hoyt and Mr. Cammann were married on Christmas Eve in 1997 in a chapel in Vermont that had no heat but was lit with Christmas lights. They often worked side by side in the ambulance. “We did good patient care together,” Mr. Cammann said.
When they were not busy responding to calls for help or facilitating training for other first responders, the couple enjoyed traveling to Europe and the Caribbean.
In addition to her husband, Ms. Hoyt is survived by two brothers, Ed Hoyt of Bridgehampton and Jim Hoyt of Las Vegas. Her parents and a sister, Donna, predeceased her.
A wake will be held for Ms. Hoyt at the Brockett Funeral Home in Southampton today from 6 to 9 p.m. Her burial will be private. Her family has suggested memorial donations to the Firemen’s Home of the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York at 125 Harry Howard Avenue, Hudson, N.Y. 12534.