By DANIEL STACKHOUSE
Special to the Statesboro Herald
Charles R. “Chuck” Francis offers medical experience as a paramedic, registered nurse and clinical coordinator in the race for Bulloch County coroner as the Republican candidate. He has also been a deputy coroner for 22 years.
In fact, he and the Democratic contender for coroner, Craig Tremble, are two of the county’s three current deputy coroners. Both say that if the other wins, they will continue as a deputy coroner, working for the other who will then be the elected department head. This is the third and final week of early voting. Then Tuesday, Nov. 5, is the traditional Election Day.
Francis, a Bulloch County native, currently works as the clinical coordinator for East Georgia Regional Medical Center’s cardiac catheterization lab. He qualified for the coroner race in March and ran unopposed in the Republican primary in May.
“I have been in medicine for the last 30 years,” Francis said last week. “I have been working as a paramedic and registered nurse for a while. I’m not currently working as a paramedic, but I’m still certified with the state.”
Francis’ career began when he first learned about medicine and public safety in Charleston, South Carolina. While he stayed in Charleston for a year, he worked as an emergency medical technician, or EMT.
After moving back to Bulloch County, he went back to school to become a licensed practical nurse. After becoming an LPN, he enrolled in paramedic school and was licensed in 1997. Simultaneously, he started at Georgia Southern University and graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing in 2002, also becoming an RN.
While working as a paramedic, Francis would often cross paths with coroners. The interactions he had with them sparked his interest in death scene investigation. He got in touch with the county coroner at the time, who offered to have him as a deputy coroner, and he has been involved with the coroner’s office as a deputy coroner ever since.
On call 24/7
If elected, Francis intends to ensure that the coroner’s office is ready 24/7 to take any call. His goal is to work with the county’s three deputy coroners (including one who is currently coroner) to arrange a schedule where there is a coroner on call at all times to cover the county, he said.
“We have an increase in population [in Bulloch County],” Francis said. “The more people you have, the more accidents you have, the more natural deaths you have, the more unexplained deaths… The bigger the population, the bigger those numbers are.”
Both candidates say they would be full-time coroners in regard to what the office demands, but either would intend to keep his full-time job or business, Francis as a hospital employee or Tremble as a funeral home owner and church pastor.
“The coroner’s office, as an office itself, is a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week office… and the coroner is the coroner 24/7. With that being said, every coroner that has ever had this office had another job and worked as the coroner also,” Francis explained. “There’s not a schedule for when people die typically, and we just have to be available when it happens.”
Care & compassion
Francis has always loved serving the county, through his experience as a nurse, paramedic, deputy coroner and even a volunteer firefighter, he said. He believes the coroner’s office has always run soundly and made a point to work through any circumstances to get the job done.
Being elected as coroner would be a new experience, but Francis would intend on understanding how the coroner’s office operates from that new position and trusting in county leadership, he said. Along with professionalism, he believes he and others in the office have a duty to be empathetic in what he says are probably the worst days of people’s lives.
Francis believes his years of service to the county have led him to be a qualified and compassionate candidate, he said. Medical experience isn’t required, but Francis believes it gives him a leg up in the race.
“I am well-versed in most things medical when it comes to cause and manner of death,” he said. “It gives me more opportunity to be aware of what medically may have happened to somebody and put together what my actual role is, and that’s to determine cause and manner of death.”
The current coroner, Richard Pylant, also previously a deputy coroner, was appointed to serve the remainder of previous coroner Jake Futch’s term after Futch retired in April 2023. Pylant chose not to seek the elected office, and his term will end Dec. 31.