By Megan Guza

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PITTSBURGH — Mark Bocian was a policy guy and rule-follower who held the medics who served under him to high standards — the definition of “by the book,” friends and family said.

But he could bend the book, too.

“He’d never admit to that, though,” said Ron Romano, a former EMS chief who spent decades working alongside Mr. Bocian with Pittsburgh emergency services until his own retirement in 2022.

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Crows’ feet were one example.

“You have some people, when they’re overseeing people, they want to discipline every little thing,” Mr. Romano said.

But Mr. Bocian gave out warnings — “crows’ feet,” he called them. Three crows’ feet and you’d get written up. No one could quite recall why, exactly, they were c

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