By Matt Skoufalos
Growing up in Westlake, Ohio, Jeremy Tolaro was seldom far from UH St. John Medical Center (then St. John and West Shore Hospital). His mother worked as an outpatient registration secretary there, and when Tolaro turned 17, he joined her at the facility. After starting in its cafeteria, Tolaro moved on to the radiology department within six months, where he pulled, filed, and stored radiology films. Between that work and the kindness shown to him by the technologists in the department, Tolaro soon began learning about image processing and how files are communicated to physicians’ offices. Soon he discovered the path on which his own career would flourish.
Since earning his bachelor’s degree in health sciences at Cleveland State University – and with the exception of a year off to attend nuclear medicine school at the University of Findlay, where he earned his CMNT – Tolaro’s entire career has been mostly built within the University Hospitals health system. He credits a natural curiosity and interest in learning how things work with helping him succeed in the roles in which he found himself.
“All I really wanted to do was learn things,” Tolaro said. “UH St. John gave me an opportunity to be lead tech just because I was always asking questions. I’d already learned how to order supplies, make schedules, work on quality assurance, and help with state inspections, so it was kind of a natural transition.”
“A couple years after that, a very similar thing happened with a supervisory position,” he said. “I wasn’t looking for leadership, but I wanted to learn how to do a little bit more, and it was a natural transition. Now I’m getting my master’s degree.”
Tolaro believes that his interest in self-improvement, and not any specific desire for a leadership role, opened the doors for his professional advancement. But by being curious and challenging himself intellectually in the workplace, he was rewarded for his innate inclination towards education.
“I still think that’s important,” he said. “Whether you have leadership goals in mind, or any sort of advancement, it’s got to come from a genuine place of curiosity, and a desire to get better and do more. If that works in my favor and leads to another advancement, then fantastic. But I enjoy what I’m doing now, and want to make sure that I’m the best I can be at it so that I can continue to get that satisfaction from the job. If I just wanted to clock in and clock out, and not do anything else, I wouldn’t be where I am.”
Those are lessons that Tolaro works to confer to his six- and eight-year-old children. Their interests are as varied as their moods, and include sports like gymnastics, soccer and football. When he’s not ferrying them to and from practices, games, and competitions, Tolaro enjoys spending time with them outdoors. An avid sportsman who appreciates hunting, fishing, and boating, he’s eagerly anticipating the day when they join him in pursuit of those experiences.
“The house I grew up in was on two acres of land, and the back acre was all woods,” Tolaro said. “It backed right up to one of the metro parks in the Cleveland suburbs, so growing up, I had access to the woods; that’s what we did for fun.”
When Tolaro’s parents said, “Go out and play,” he and his friends took advantage of the suburban Ohio metro parks system within a mile of his home. They spent hours walking through the woods, making trails, constructing bike paths, and finding their fun in the great outdoors. It instilled within Tolaro a love of wild places and communion with nature that he’s passing on to his children.
Today, when he wants to get out to nature, he has options. If he’s feeling nostalgic, he can retrace his steps through the local parks, head to a friend’s property for hunting, or swing up north to go boating or fishing on Lake Erie. If all of those are too far out of the way, he’s equally happy to step outside to his back deck and enjoy some time under the pergola.
“Whatever’s close and convenient; whatever strikes your fancy that day,” Tolaro said. “When I’m going with my kids, it’s a way to have some quality time, and catch fish, and make it more exciting.”
Tolaro hunts deer for venison; during archery season, he’ll use a crossbow, but during gun season, he prefers a muzzle-loading, one-shot rifle to keep things challenging for himself.
“I have used shotguns and lever-action rifles,” Tolaro said, “but for me, there is more sport to the muzzle-loader. The gun part isn’t as important as the sport and the hunt. If I went to 100-percent using a crossbow, it wouldn’t change a thing, except I’d have to wait even longer for the deer to get closer. I don’t really believe in trophy hunting, but if a trophy comes up, we’re going to take advantage of it.”
Deer hunting starts early in the day, at least 90 minutes before sunrise. Tolaro will climb a tree, set up a deer blind, or otherwise position himself out of sight in the pitch black, so he can be ready to go before the sun rises. As day breaks, his favorite part of the experience is hearing the woods come to life amid that tranquility while sun streaks across the sky. His second-favorite moment is when a deer approaches.
“It’s totally quiet, totally peaceful, and you get that every single time you get into the woods,” Tolaro said. “You’re zoning out, or almost meditating, and when you hear or see movement, you’ve got to wait until that deer gets into a position where you can take a shot. That adrenaline is building that whole time.”
For Tolaro, the experience of hunting and fishing is as much about hands-on self-sufficiency as any other chore, from repairing a household appliance, changing out his car’s brakes, or cooking his own meals. He enjoys the satisfaction of a job done well, and by his own two hands.
“There’s two types of people who hit the lottery,” Tolaro said: “someone who would never do anything for themselves again, and me, who would go out and buy the tools and learn how.”
“Always be active,” he said. “Try to do something; try to learn something. I like being the guy that, if it needs to get done, I’m able to do it. I want to keep learning and getting better so that I continue to be that guy.” •
