Richard Zuschlag, who built Acadian Ambulance service into powerhouse, dies at 76 (2024)

Richard Zuschlag, a Pennsylvania native who moved to Lafayette in 1970 and a year later started a company with two ambulances that he grew into the country’s largest privately held medical transportation company, died early Wednesday. He was 76 and died in Lafayette from complications following cancer treatment.

Zuschlag was a hard-driving executive who, with two co-founders, built Acadian Ambulance Service into a company known for putting people over profits.

“The phone rang and somebody was dying, we responded,” Zuschlag said in a 2016 interview, in describing the company’s initial operating approach that grew into its business model.

At the time of his death, Zuschlag was the longtime chairman and CEO, and he owned the controlling interest in the company.

Zuschlag mixed a love for mechanics— he fixed his high school’s public address system on a fateful day in November 1963 so the principal could announce the death of President John F. Kennedy— with close attention to detail and an ability to charm politicians who needed to greenlight the ambulance service’s expansion.

Zuschlag counted presidents, senators and Supreme Court justices among his acquaintances— he liked to take them hunting at his luxurious lodge in Cameron Parish— but he was known for trying to do as much for political nobodies as big shots.

Acadian Ambulance remains based in Lafayette, has 5,200 employees, and operates in four states and 37 parishes in Louisiana. The employees own 80% of the company under an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP.

“Very few people get the greatest award in humanity, which is to touch the lives of so many in such a positive way. Richard Zuschlag was one of them,” Gov. Jeff Landry said. “Richard’s is a legacy of caring, of sharing, and making his beloved state and Acadiana a better place to call home!”

John Bel Edwards, who was Landry's predecessor, said he hopes Zuschlag's family takes comfort in how much he did for other people. "He wasn't just a great Louisianan, he was a great man," said Edwards. "Most people across Louisiana know Richard the businessman, but Donna and I, along with our entire family, know Richard as a loyal friend and devoted husband, father and grandfather. Through his philanthropic work, Richard devoted his life to making Louisiana a better place."

Falling in love with 'the way of the Cajun people'

Zuschlag ended up in Lafayette by chance. After growing up in Greenville, Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh, he graduated with two science degrees from the Capitol Institute of Technology just outside of Washington, D.C. He then went to work for Westinghouse Space and Defense Center in Baltimore and was sent to Lafayette.

He soon wished he was back in Pennsylvania with his dream job, owning a local radio station.

“In Lafayette, they all talked funny and had highly seasoned food, [the] mosquitoes [were] as big as houses, and they all went to school in flat-bottomed canoes,” he recalled.

But when his year-long stint in Lafayette was over, Zuschlag stayed.

“I had fallen so much in love with the way of the Cajun people, the family atmosphere and the attitude of ‘let the good times roll,’” he remembered.

Zuschlag saw a business opportunity in 1971 after local funeral homes stopped providing private ambulance service.

But to do so, he needed the approvalof Lafayette’s mayor, Ray Bertrand.

“We were told no twice, that we were too young,” Zuschlag, who was 23 at the time, said later. “The third time, I sat in the mayor’s office from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. I wouldn’t leave until I could talk to him.”

Bertrand wasn’t convinced until Zuschlag had him call the mayor of Greenville, who vouched for Zuschlag.

With $2,500 in capital, he and two friends in Lafayette— Roland Dugas Jr. and Ronald Buckner – borrowed enough money to buy two ambulances and founded the company. They hired eight Vietnam War veterans as medics and had to cover 279 square miles of Lafayette Parish.

Zuschlag drove an ambulance during the day and worked as a dispatcher in the evening. He often spent the night at the office in a sleeping bag.

But over time, the company grew because Acadian would provide service that no one else could.

It had an unusual financing plan where the general public bought memberships in the company, beginning at $15 per year, that gave them free ambulance rides in case they needed them. Zuschlag, Dugas and Richard Sturlese, who bought out Buckner early on, oversaw regular membership drives on Lafayette TV stations that pitched membership as a community good to ensure that ambulance service would be available to everyone.

“We didn’t make money for the first 25 years of existence,” said Erroll Babineaux, who was hired as the company’s 19th employee in 1974 and rose to oversee its air transport division before his retirement in 2020. “We always reinvested the money back into the equipment to save as many lives as possible. Richard wanted to take care of the patients more than anything else. We had to take out loans until the next membership campaign.”

'When I got up in the morning, I started doing'

In another unusual feature, the company grew without a business plan.

“I did notice as I was running the show how many other people were trying to get started in different kinds of businesses and how much time they spent in planning sessions,” Zuschlag said. “They spent all their time planning and never getting anything done. That was one of my bright spots. I was a doer. When I got up in the morning, I started doing.”

Doing meant sending ambulances to transport people in need, no matter where they lived.

Page Cortez was a second-term state senator from Lafayette when a former employee called one day to say that her father had had a heart attack while driving on the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge on Interstate 10 and had pulled over. Could Cortez help in some way?

Cortez immediately called Acadian, which put him through to Zuschlag.

“He said he would have a helicopter on the Basin Bridge in a few minutes,” Cortez, who went on to become Senate president, remembered Monday. “He was so hands-on in every facet of the business. He would go out of his way to help anyone.”

In later years, Zuschlag would lament his forceful management style, saying it didn’t always serve him or his employees well.

“I’m glad that I have learned how to have a better attitude,” he said. (An employee) taught me it’s important to get up in the morning and spend some time in meditation and prayer and to start the day out in a very positive attitude and convey that positive attitude to all the people you come around. Since I’ve started doing that my life has become a whole lot better.”

The company has six divisions: Acadian Ambulance Service, Acadian Air Med, Executive Aircraft Charter Service, Acadian Total Security, National EMS Academy and Safety Management Systems.

Acadian instituted an ESOP in 1993 after Zuschlag declined to sell the firm to another company. Employees receive private stock in the company that they can redeem at the end of their employment or at retirement.

“It was about getting good employees, keeping them and letting them earn a good retirement through their ownership in the company,” said Babineaux.

Befriending officials at all levels

Along the way, Zuschlag developed a relationship with every governor of Louisiana, regardless of party, beginning with Edwin Edwards in the 1970s. Governors and state legislators would decide the ambulance transport rate for Medicaid patients. Zuschlag also befriended local government officials who would decide whether to allow the company to operate in their area.

John Breaux, who represented Acadiana in the House before moving to the Senate, helped arrange meetings for Zuschlag with federal officials who would decide the reimbursem*nt rate for Medicare patients transported by Acadian.

“He had a never-say-die attitude,” Breaux said. “His personality was almost overwhelming in a positive sense.”

In time, after the company grew, Zuschlag would provide his company airplane for the Tiger Athletic Foundation to recruit football players and coaches and for politicians who needed to fly out of the state.

Zuschlag didn’t discard his political friends once they were out of office. Former Gov. Kathleen Blanco flew to Memphis on Zuschlag’s plane for an emergency eye cancer treatment.

Guests to his hunting lodge, known as Grand View, joked that Zuschlag would take down photos of Democrats when a Republican bigwig was coming or vice versa.

The Louisiana Political Hall of Fame inducted Zuschlag in 2019.

He served on the Bush-Clinton Coastal Recovery Fund committee, which was created by former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton following damaging hurricanes in 2008. Zuschlag also helped establish the Lafayette Parish 911 system, and he chaired the Lafayette Parish Communication District, was a member of the New Orleans Business Council, the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce and the Tiger Athletic Foundation board of directors. He received the Lafayette Civic Cup in 1996.

Zuschlag was a member of the seven-member CEO advisory council at One Acadiana.

“Richard's visionary leadership and dedication to the well-being of our community have left an enduring legacy,” One Acadiana CEO Troy Wayman said. “His unwavering commitment to our region, through both his professional endeavors and philanthropic efforts, has significantly shaped the Lafayette community and all of Acadiana. Richard was a kind and loving soul and served as a valued mentor to me and many others in our region.”

Zuschlag met his wife Elaine after driving patients to the Breaux Bridge Community Hospital. She was a nurse.

They have three children: Blaise, who is executive vice president and chief administrative officer at Acadian; Beth LeBlanc, who is Acadian’s associate counsel; and Blair, an insurance executive. Zuschlag had nine grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Tyron Picard, founder and manager of Lafayette-based The Picard Group, had a 13-year run as executive vice president at Acadian after five years as an outside lawyer.

“Richard was just this unique enigma of a personality that was a combination of Nick Saban, Henry Kissinger and Sam Walton all rolled into one,” Picard said. “Everything he did he demanded perfection at, and sometimes you wanted to pull your hair out, but looking back it made me a better business person.”

Picard said Zuschlag often quietly helped people in need, sometimes helping a family pay a tuition bill or someone who needed a second chance with a job.

“I can’t imagine what Lafayette would look like had Richard Zuschlag stayed in Pennsylvania,” Picard said. “His fingerprints are on so many things in this community. He completely lifted up his community and always saw a sign of gratitude that whatever success he had needed to be shared back in the community.”