An emergency room nurse and teacher, Dotha H. Hellyer trained hundreds of firefighters to be paramedics at a time when the notion of having firefighters take care of people was still a novel idea. “She had a big impact on paramedics in the northwest suburbs and parts of Chicago,” said Bob Falardeau, deputy chief of the Palatine Fire Department, who was trained as a paramedic by Mrs. Hellyer in 1977. “She was the toughest teacher,” said her son Timothy, a former Palatine firefighter who was trained by his mother in 1979. Mrs. Hellyer, 71, died after suffering a stroke Monday, March 23, in Provena St. Joseph Hospital, Elgin. Born in the Philippines, Mrs. Hellyer, known as “Dodie,” grew up in Chicago, graduating from Waller High School and Norwegian-American Hospital’s nursing school in Chicago. She and her husband, William, married in 1953. Initially a surgical nurse at Norwegian-American and then Weiss Memorial Hospital, she switched to the emergency room in Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. A nurse at Lutheran General for about 10 years, she left when her husband’s work took the family to Indiana. They moved to Arlington Heights in the mid-1970s, and Mrs. Hellyer in 1977 joined Northwest Community Hospital’s Emergency Medical Services. Within two years she was running the EMS training program, a job she held for nearly 20 years. In the 1980s, she took evening and weekend classes at National-Louis University and received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in education. Her husband died in 1990, and she retired a year or two later, continuing to work part time for the Arlington Heights Health Department. In the summer, she volunteered as a counselor at a camp for children burn patients. Mrs. Hellyer moved to Algonquin about five years ago. Survivors also include another son, William; two daughters, Julie and Deborah; a sister, Connie Walmsley; and five grandchildren. Visitation will be held from 3 to 8 p.m. Sunday and 4 to 9 p.m. Monday in Meadows Funeral Home, 3615 Kirchoff Rd., Rolling Meadows. A service will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the funeral home.
