Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Hospital luncheon, Don Schmick
Hospital luncheon, broad view
Honoree Don Schmick of Colfax at the event Feb. 10.
Attendees gathered at Hill-Ray Plaza, including Ninth District Representative Joe Schmick.
Don Schmick and Gordon McLean were subjects of honor at a Whitman Community Hospital Foundation awards luncheon Feb. 10 in the Fireside Room of Hill-Ray Plaza.
The luncheon saluted Schmick and McLean for their involvement in creating the Whitman County Public Hospital District No. 3 beginning in 1987.
Terry Eng, Hospital Foundation treasurer, spoke of how the foundation was begun at the behest of McLean as a vehicle to raise funds.
Schmick, then proprietor of Schmick Insurance in Colfax, went to a meeting in early 1988 as McLean, the new chief administrator at the hospital, organized an effort to create a hospital district.
Soon after a board was formed for the separate hospital foundation.
Its goal was $10 million fund to reap five percent of that annually in perpetuity. Eng reported that the foundation fund now has $4.4 million in total assets.
“My hope is I'll be around when we hit that $10 million,” Eng said.
Linda Marler, vice president of the Hospital Foundation board, spoke next.
“The next hill to climb is still out in front of us, but we feel very blessed,” she said.
Mark Johnson, of Tick Klock Pharmacy and the current Hospital Foundation president, followed with remarks.
“I think there's a great deal of pride for this hospital,” he said.
Ninth District Rep. Joe Schmick read a letter from State Sen. Mark Schoesler – R, Ritzville, Senate Majority Leader, saluting Don Schmick.
McClean, now of Cottage Grove, Ore., appeared on screen via Skype. He served as administrator of Whitman Hospital from 1987 to 2001.
“What I see is Colfax has always been our Brigadoon,” said McLean, held back from attending by weather.
He recalled when he arrived in Colfax in 1987 “with Theresa, a pickup full of chickens; we had a job to do,” he said.
What was done “reflects a lot of courage of a lot of the people you know and knew,” he said. “We can all feel good on our investment.”
The nine-member board from '87 went out to draw support.
“The Parvin Grange stepped up, the Pomona Grange followed and the ball started rolling,” McClean said on the video screen. “People were giving up on their hometown hospitals,” he said of a time of rural hospitals closing.
Schmick became a key force for the cause.
“He was pretty much the leader of the gang,” Marler said to the Gazette later.
During this lean time, a hiring and raise freeze was in effect, and Whitman Hospital delivered no babies for three years.
Once in a better financial position, it changed. McLean hauled borrowed equipment from Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane down to Colfax in his pickup.
The formation of the hospital district passed in 1988.
“Good things happened ever after,” McLean said.
In further comments about his time in Colfax, he held up a Suess Farms hat on the screen and an old Colfax Rotary hat.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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