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The Law Firm Freund, Freeze and Arnold is pleased to present the Atrium Medical Center Foundation 2013 Physician Hero Award to Dr. Jerry D. Hammond. The Medical Staff at Atrium Medical Center chose Dr. Hammond as physician hero for the many outstanding qualities his patients and physician peers see in him.

Dr. Scott: And I thought I’m going to look up the word hero and see can it apply to a doctor? So I Googled it. And it’s: “One who does things without thinking of themselves and without expecting a reward.” And I think, therefore, that fits Jerry to a T. And that’s a great definition of a hero.

His family and friends attribute Dr. Hammond’s values and qualities to his parents’ life lessons.

Terri Lynn: I think you have to start with our grandparents who kind of instilled in him a great work ethic. He came from a farm family, and he and his brothers and sometimes his sister worked on the farm.

Doug McNeill: Jerry was born to be a doctor. It is who he is. It was clearly his life, and his love and his passion.

Dr. Nesbit: He is a beloved family physician. He is a, was a, wonderful, superb clinician. He was humble and he was compassionate.

Sheila Wade: Patients knew that when they came to him they would get a diagnosis. Because if he didn’t know it, he was never afraid to say, “I’m not sure, but I’m gonna find out.”

Larry Hammond: Well it was his focus on people. And he truly liked what he was doing and wanted to help.

Sheila Wade: Dr. Hammond was and I think still is one of the best diagnosticians of all time.

Carol Turner: Jerry was one of those guys that would sit back and listen. And he didn’t always say much, but when he did say something, people listened.

Jeff Hammond: I think not only is he a good listener, he’s actually genuinely caring.

Jack Hammond: His total focus when he was practicing was the individual patient and how he could improve that patient’s care. I say that it kind of distills down maybe to he was practicing holistic medicine 50-60 years ago before most people knew what holistic medicine was.

Dr. Robertson: I think he took his responsibilities as a physician very seriously, and if he could further the state of medicine and further the hospital, by being you know in charge, as a leader, I think he was very much willing to do those types of things.

Carol Turner: What makes him an outstanding board member, is that he never waivered in terms of his position on patient care. He never waivered on what were his personal values and ethics.

His physician peers, staff, and friends all chose Dr. Hammond to be their family physician because they respect and admire him.

Dr. Nesbit: It is true that he was the doctor’s doctor in Middletown, Ohio. And that’s the highest compliment any physician can have.

Terri Lynn: Some of his office staff had worked for him the whole time that he was in practice, so it was basically a big family.

Dr. Hammond’s family has always been his primary concern.  Jean, his wife, supported his work and family throughout his career.

Sheila Wade: When he first started practice in 1960 in Middletown, she answered the phone for him, took his phone calls, made his appointments, all that kind of thing. Plus managed the children, got them where they needed to be. She was a huge, huge support for him. And he was absolutely devoted to the family.

Terri Lynn: And so, they, we had a CB in the basement and she used to call him on that to tell him where he needed to go and what he needed to be doing. So, they had different strengths. And they respected each other’s strengths and they also knew each others weaknesses, and kind of bolstered each other up through those.

Carol Turner: I have to commend Dr. Hammond for making the tough decision to retire when he did because he never lost sight of his commitment to his family. In all the years that he practiced, he was still very committed to his family and it was a time where his family needed him so I understand it.

Sheila Wade: And now it’s his children and his grandson. He’s very, very proud of his grandson. So, that’s kind of the light of his life! His family, his daughters, and his son mean the world to him.

Carol Turner: I think Dr. Hammond’s greatest legacy to the community is that he set the bar very high for the Medical Staff in terms of improving what we do, expanding the services we offer, continuing to become better at what we do.

Doug McNeill: He was respected by his own peers. He was respected by hospital employees. He was respected by his own patients. And I think that probably there’s no higher accolade that anyone could receive than to be respected by the people you serve.

Carol Turner: His ongoing support of the hospital, his dedication to medicine, his focus on quality and continuing to raise the bar are what make him the perfect physician hero.

Dr. Scott: There’s a phrase in Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. The sentence starts: “Will I be a hero in my life or will someone else fill that role?” And I would suspect that for many of Jerry’s patients, he filled that role. And was their hero.

Contech Engineered Solutions is pleased to present the Atrium Medical Center Foundation 2013 Community Hero Award to G. Robert Gage and Patricia Miller Gage. Bob Gage came to Middletown through his work, but grew to love the city. He earned his reputation as an outstanding businessman, great leader, visionary and friend.

Jean Ann Kiefhaber: We met Bob Gage in 1960 actually at a party, and he was dancing. He loved to dance. And I think he danced for the next 45 years.

Anne McNeill: What I really appreciate about Bob Gage is how much he loved life. His joie de vivre.

Jim Snyder: Bob was, first of all, a “stand-up” guy. He was intelligent, honorable, he was the kind of man you’d want to have as your friend. And he would stand by you always. He was great to travel with. We cycled together a lot. He really enjoyed that. Our crowning achievement in cycling – we went from Vail to the top of Vail Pass, which was 10,600 feet and we were quite proud of ourselves. It was tarnished a little because on the way because on the way up we had, uh, on a particularly steep stretch, we were passed by a young lady…and she was running!

Patty Gage is known for her passion for her family and friends, untiring volunteer work and leadership, as well as her affection for her hometown and her country.

Jean Ann Kiefhaber: She’s dedicated to family, Middletown, country and without tiring. She’s an amazing person, marvelous friend and Middletown’s really lucky to have her, particularly the hospital. Of course she’s a born teacher. So, these grandchildren she has are very lucky. She’s so good with them. We have a joke that in our next life we want to come back as Patty’s grandchildren. 

Dr. Kiefhaber: Her pride in our country, her pride in her school, her pride in our town, our city. During the construction of the hospital when the cranes were there and the girders were sort of naked, she said, “We’ve got to get an American Flag on that.” And sure enough, she bought it I think.

Nancy Fraunfelter: Patty has so many wonderful qualities, but I think the ones that stand out to me are she’s so generous, and she’s dedicated and very organized. And she just has a beautiful, she’s beautiful inside. It’s so easy to be her friend.

Aimee Snyder: When she does something, she really goes all out to do it and do it well. And her mother was a volunteer at the hospital and I think that’s probably how she got to be a volunteer.

Together, Patty and Bob Gage felt a sense of responsibility that propelled them to share so much of their lives with the people of Middletown.

Jim Snyder: A community is only as good as the people in it. And Patty and Bob were the best of people. They worked at things that a lot of other people would not do. And they did it well. And the community prospered because of them.

Kitty Hardin: Well, they were always free to offer their home for gatherings.

Bill Hardin: And it was a very warm and inviting place to go there. They just made you feel at home, and they were so happy you were there.

Kitty Hardin: They’d greet you with a smile.

Jim: Right, so you were just comfortable from the get-go.

Nancy Miller Fraunfelter: Well, they were a good fit. They just were able to back each other up in the endeavors that they pursued. And Middletown is a better place because of the team that they were.

In 1986, Bob’s visionary nature helped him lead a management team to develop Contech Engineered Solutions into a respected, national corporation.

Doug McNeill: He took a division of Armco and turned it into something new and different and vital so in a way that it had its own different set of potentials which he and his colleagues were soon to realize.

Don Henderson: Well, I would think you would certainly have to say the creation and growth of Contech Construction Products would have to be the singular greatest achievement of his working career I would believe. Just look at Bob’s record not only from the business standpoint of view, but the things that he’s done in the community, for the hospital, for Meals on Wheels, for the Community Foundation, for the Arts in this community. All of these things indicate that Bob had a tremendous interest in the community and didn’t just support it financially but he supported it with his own work and time.

Carol Turner: He always wanted to make sure that the decisions we made were the right thing for our patients and the right thing for our medical staff. And he never lost sight of that.

Bob and Patty Gage shared a vision that enhancing the hospital would have a long-lasting, positive effect on the community.

Doug McNeill: They both believed, deeply, that the hospital was very important to the fabric of the community. That without good schools and a good hospital, for example, you couldn’t have as high a high quality of life. Iin my view, Bob was the central figure in the vision and development of Atrium Medical Center. He had a deep desire to see the hospital reach its full potential.

Doug McNeill: So, I think that Bob would be very proud today to see how that vision has been realized.

Carolyn Henderson: He would love it! He would think it was beautiful and he would dance the night away at the Gala!