As the founder of Rural/Metro Corp., Lou Witzeman helped the company grow from one fire truck into the nation's leading provider of private-sector fire protection more than 50 years later.

In 1948, Witzeman saw a neighbor's home burn to the ground because there was no local fire department. He decided that such a tragedy wouldn't happen again, and began collecting money door to door to fund a fire department. His campaign was successful, letting Witzeman buy a fire truck and start operating a four-man department.

From those humble beginnings came a company that today provides fire protection, ems, and other health and safety services to more than 12 million people in more than 350 communities throughout North and South America. Rural/Metro has roughly 9,000 employee-owners and annual revenues of $440 million.

"I never expected the company to grow so big," Witzeman says. "I just wanted to provide my neighborhood with fire protection, but I soon realized that I had really stumbled onto something. I found that the established ways of providing services were not as efficient as they could be." Finding ways to deliver cost-effective service based on needs, rather than relying on traditional solutions, became Rural/Metro's primary ethic.

Chief Alan Brunacini of the Phoenix Fire Department calls Witzeman the "father of being able to see a system in non-traditional terms." "Lou was able to ... challenge the system in ways that were constructive," Brunacini says. "And it was a shame that, rather than seeing what Lou was doing as an opportunity, we viewed it as a threat. He was the guy who was really doing what the rest of us said we were doing: He was running his operation as a business."

Witzeman, 76, says he hopes his legacy is one of "research and development in a field, that when I came into it, did not do much research and development." He believes that aggressive r&d programs are essential to the fire service.

In 1978, Witzeman sold Rural/Metro through an employee stock ownership plan, although he still serves on the board and as a consultant. "I could have sold the company to one of the big private security firms," he explains. "But I wanted a way to sell the company and retire that would save the company's values." Non-traditional to the end!