I first met Arthur Kaplan thirty seven years ago. When I was a rookie Atlanta Police officer in the training academy. Arthur was teaching us first aid and CPR for our police certifications.
I knew little about him then, other than he was a man my father's age and everyone called him judge. Later on, after I graduated the police academy and went on to street patrol, I encountered Arthur on a regular basis. At auto accident scenes, on the scene of shootings and stabbings and you name it. Arthur seemed to always be there when people were hurt or dying.
Arthur was the ubiquitous "Rescue One" on Atlanta Police radio and you could hear him day or night. And you could see him, racing from call to call in one of his specially fitted Plymouths. Using his own specially equipped car and burning his own gas and expending his own bandages and materials in his daily effort, Arthur could be found almost 24 hours a day prowling the streets of the city.
Later on....a few years after I had become a police officer, Arthur would confide in me that his experiences in the Navy during WWII had been the inspiration behind his life saving efforts. Having seen men horribly wounded in battle and not knowing what to do to either ease their pain or save their lives had haunted him. And that is what inspired him to become one of the first emergency medical technicians in the state of Georgia in the 1960's. Arthur graduated law school and became a lawyer when he came home from the war, but he wasn't one of the ambulance chasers. Arthur was the ambulance!
Once during the mid 1970's, I found myself trying to stop a car with two robbery suspects who had just robbed a convenience store. Just as I spotted them on Peachtree street that night, so did "Rescue One" in his unmarked car. It was just me and the judge. The suspects picked up on the fact that they had been made and they quickly hit a parking lot and bailed out of the car shooting at us as we followed them into the parking lot. While I returned fire, Arthur scrambled to the rear of his car where he had a M-1 carbine rifle in the trunk.
For some reason the judge had left his city issued service revolver at home that night. As he crouched down behind his car with the carbine, he pitched it over to me and said "here! check and see if this damn thing is loaded!" I did and it was, so I returned it to the judge for his safety while myself and a few other responding officers went into the woods after the hold up men.
We got them. Both of them. And when I went back over to check on Arthur at his car, he was ashen. The situation had really scared him (rightfully so). He never showed the strain while it was going on, but once it was over and we had both suspects in custody, the weight of the reality had obviously settled in on him. That would not be the last time that Arthur would be shot at while trying to save lives.
But from that night on and through the years and on into the next three decades, every time I would see the judge, I would always walk up and shake his hand and then gently pat his coat at the hip to check for that service revolver. And it was always there. He never left it at home after that night we spent on Peactree. And the pat on the hip and the knowing look exchanged between me him him every time we met after that? Well it was like our own private inside story. No one else knew, but we always remembered that night and acknowledged it to each other.
Ten years later, he would come visit me in the hospital where I was recovering from multiple gunshot wounds. Compliments of another hold up man. Arthur came to see me and to offer encouragement, but he also wanted to apologize for not having been there the night that I was shot. He had been out of town attending a conference and as soon as he returned home to Atlanta, one of the first things that he did was to come see me in the hospital.
I last saw Arthur about ten years ago. It was before I retired seven years ago. He had finally had to all but give up his running rescue calls in the city due to age and failing health, but that smile and firm handshake and the knowing wink between us always remained.
I got word earlier this afternoon, that my friend Judge Arthur Kaplan died this morning about 1 am. He made it to the new year, but that was as far as his tired body would carry him.
I was out at the store shopping when I got the notification and on the drive on the way home, all I could think about was all the times and all that the man had done for me and literally thousands of others throughout his amazing life.
I sincerely know that he is at rest now and that he is walking with God and the angels. Not too many people could have possibly lived a more productive life in service to their fellow man than Arthur Kaplan did. Yes, he is in Heaven this afternoon and he is one of the VIP's there I am sure.
Thank you Arthur for touching so many people and thank you for all that you did for me through the years. It was an honor knowing you your honor.
The obituary posted this afternoon in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Arthur Kaplan
By Rhonda Cook
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Before he retired a decade ago, the long-time Atlanta Municipal Court judge and former Fulton County magistrate was honored by the Secret Service, trained thousands of law enforcement officers in emergency rescue and on a few occasions personally treated wounded officers even as shots were being fired.
He appeared on the television shows To Tell the Truth and he was featured on This Is Your Life. Newsweek Magazine included the judge on its list 100 "unsung heroes" of America in 1986, and People magazine wrote about his unusual “hobby.
Judge Kaplan was recognized for receiving more Red Cross Certificates of Merit for Lifesaving than anyone else in the nation.
“Judge Kaplan was a man of absolute integrity,” said Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vernon Keenan. “He was a war hero and he was a hero to men and women in Georgia law enforcement. He trained thousands of police officers in first aid, specifically in how to treat gunshot wounds. On several occasions, he went in, under fire, to rescue wounded police officers.”
Judge Kaplan died at 1 a.m. at Hospice Atlanta, where he had been for 12 weeks, according to his family.
Judge Kaplan, a Navy frogman during World War II, was in five Pacific island invasions and he survived the sinking of a ship. He was awarded a Naval Commendation for Meritorious Service for helping doctors care for injured sailors under fire at the battle of Okinawa.
After the war he was faced with deciding between two loves -- medicine and the law. He got a law degree from John Marshall Law School while also training as a medic at Grady Memorial Hospital, which led to decades as a volunteer paramedic.
He has taught his lifesaving techniques to officers and Secret Service and FBI agents as well as some probation violators who would appear before him in court.
“He just loved medicine and he just loved this city,” said one of his daughters, Gwinnett Judge Debra Turner.
Cobb County Public Safety Director Mickey Lloyd once told a story about Judge Kaplan coming to his aid when, as a young Atlanta police officer, Lloyd was hit by a taxicab, "When I opened my eyes the first thing I saw was the sincere and serious face of Judge Arthur Kaplan looking down at me, saying ‘You're going to be all right, son,' " Lloyd said in a previous AJC article.
One of his most dramatic rescues was in 1975 when he was first to respond to a report that an officer in DeKalb County had been shot twice and the gunman was still shooting.
Returning fire with his own revolver, the judge dragged the officer to safety. One of his shots struck the gunman's pistol and disabled it but the attacker continued shooting with a shotgun while Kaplan began emergency treatment on the wounded officer. After taking care of the officer, Judge Kaplan also treated the gunman who was shot 14 times by officers arriving at the scene.
The officer and the gunman both survived their wounds.
In 1983, Judge Kaplan heard on his police radio that an officer had been shot in the face by a barricaded gunman. Even as the gunfire continued, the judge provided emergency first aid to officer J.E. Burke and then helped move him to an ambulance.
Four years later, marshals summoned the judge to the sidewalk outside the Fulton State Courthouse because a child had stopped breathing. The judge revived the child with mouth-to- mouth resuscitation.
"One of the most beautiful things in the world is to see someone breathe again,” Judge Kaplan said at the time.
And in 2003, Judge Kaplan received the U.S. Secret Service Director's Award -- the agency's highest honor – for voluntarily training agents for 35 years.
“The Atlanta area has lost one of its greatest volunteers and heroes,” said a former law clerk, Noal Solomon. “It didn’t matter who you were or what your background was – if you needed help, Judge Kaplan was there.”
Judge Kaplan is survived by his wife of 63 years, Frances; a son, Dr. Ron Kaplan; two daughters, Turner and Shelley Wisely; their spouses and eight grandchildren.
The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made the Hospice Atlanta or the Atlanta Police Foundation.
A graveside service will be at 3 p.m. Sunday at Arlington Memorial Park on Mount Vernon Highway in Sandy Springs.
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