Four Retire
(Continued from page 5)
dry from doctors’ offices and
connted it before and after it was
cleaned. He picked np X-rays
and went to "et wheelchairs
when needed. Often he could be
seen carefully wheelin" patients
to different areas.
“We depended on James a
lot,” said Mr. Crenshaw. “James
knew where everything was . . .
and when we needed somethin"
and couldn’t find it someone
would say ‘let’s call James’ . . .
and sure enough he’d find it.”
Perhaps the highest compli
ment paid the retired employee,
however, was when Mr. Cren
shaw summed up the feelings of
the staff: “He was respected
by every employee in Surgical
P.D.C.”
Mr. Thorpe will be enjoying
his retirement years with his
wife, a former school teacher
who is also retired.
Mr. Mercer Morgan
“Mercer came about six
months after w’e opened the hos
pital . . . (smile) and he and I
ran the Urology Division for a
year before I had a resident, ’ ’
said Dr. Edwin P. Alyea, emeri
tus chief of the Division of
Urologie Surgery.
Mercer was an orderly when
he came and a scrub techni
cian when he retired. Ilis re
sponsibilities were numerous. lie
opened the clinic and waiting
rooms in Urology, sterilized the
equipment and instruments that
were already wrapped but had
to be re-sterilized, took linen to
be cleaned, picked up the clean
linen, and cleaned the rooms in
Urology. At the end of the work
ing day, he put the instruments
away, and took Central Supply
carts down to that area. “Mer-
Mr. Mercer Morgan
INTERCOM - 10
cer w'as very thorough ... he
also handled a mop well, and
didn’t mind scrubbing a floor if
it needed it,” said Mrs. Polly
Carden, head nurse in the Urolo
gy Clinic.
Mercer also worked with pa
tients. One of his responsibili
ties was preparing patients for
catlieterization. “This was one
of the things that Mercer mas
tered well, and he did many . . .
often he could do those ])atients
that some of the doctors had
problems with,” .said j\Irs. Car
den. “He didn’t talk to his pa
tients a lot, but I think he gave
them a real sense of security.
Ilis patients have all liked him,
and they often ask ‘Where is
Mercer? ’ ”
“Mercer couldn’t have done
his job better. He felt respon
sible for all the patients in the
clinic,” said Dr. Alyea. “He
was a reliable, honest, and hard
worker, and was often here from
6:30 to 6:30 ... he was never
on a timetable.”
“And he was never late, either
. . . even when it snowed and
he had to walk 2 or 3 miles to get
to work,” recalled Mrs. Carden.
Mercer’s work with the urolo
gy patients became an important
aid in the training of doctors.
“He was a big help to interns
and medical students,” empha
sized Dr. Alyea, “in demon
strating gently the art of han
dling urologie instrumentation.”
]\Irs. Carden, too, felt that this
was one of Mercer’s major con
tributions to the division. “He
has really helped in the train
ing of doctors by giving them
something that they couldn’t get
from books. He was also a good
assistant and knew the practical
side of the procedures ... he
learned and remembered the re
curring problems with catheter-
izing patients.”
And Mercer is remembered by
those with whom he worked.
“Residents thought the world of
Mercer; and the older ones, when
they inquire about the Urology
Division, always ask about him
. . . always when T go to meet
ings they ask me about him,”
said Dr. Alyea.
Mercer also helped “train”
some of the others in Urology.
“When I first came here I don’t
know what I would have done if
it had not been for ]\Iercer; for
I had never worked in urology
before, and it w^as Mercer who
told me all about the instru
ments, the different lamps for in
struments and urology equip
ment in general,” said Mrs.
Carden.
“There’ll never be another
one like him,” said Mrs. Carden.
‘ ‘ I was the luckiest man in the
world to get him,” said Dr.
Alyea.
ilr. and ilrs. Morgan have a
daughter, and two sons, one of
whom is presently in Germany
in the service.
Mrs. Lenora Thompson
Mrs. Thompson joined the
medical center staff in 1940.
During her years at Dnke she
had worked as an aide on Sleyer
and several other wards and was
a clinical aide in the obstetrical-
gynecological and surgical clin
ics. At the time of her retire
ment, Mrs. Thompson was a clin
ical aide in the Ear, Nose and
Throat clinic. She was respon
sible for the registering of pa
tients and also assisted doctors
by setting up the rooms for ex
aminations. “Almost the only
thing she didn’t do in the clinic
was to give medicine, because she
knew how to do everything
else, ’ ’ observed one of her associ
ates.
Known as “Mrs. T” by the
doctors and ‘ ‘ Ma ’ ’ by her associ
ates, Mrs. Thompson was well
Mrs. Lenora Thompson
thought of by her co-workers.
“You can’t say anything too
good about her . . . she was very
dependable in her work . . . very
kind and gentle . . . considerate
. . . pleasant . . . she had a good
sense of humor . . . she was good
all-around,” summed up one
employee who has worked with
Mrs. Thompson in the EXT clin
ic since 1953.
Early in the fall Mrs. Thomp
son will be celebrating her retire
ment by travelling with her hus
band, who is also retired, to
California to visit their son and
a daughter. The Thompsons also
have a daughter living in Dur
ham.
K
• DIVIDENDS . . .
Dr. Barrett Dick, Pathologj', and Mrs. Diek announce the
birth of a new son. Barbara Urban, R.X. in Urology Clinic, and
her husband, Frank, announce the birth of a daughter, Page, on
July 4. Dr. and Mrs. Robert Habig have a new son born on
August 1. Dr. Habig joined the staff recently as director of the
Clinical Chemistry Lab and as an instructor in Biochemistry. Dr.
Adriaan Verwoerdt, assistant professor of Psychiatrj', and Mrs.
Verwoerdt are the parents of a new son, Christopher. Dr. and Mrs.
Brett B. Gutsche, a former resident in Anesthesiology and now with
the Public Health Service in Alaska, announce the birth of a son,
Stephen Bruce, on June 29 in Anchorage. Dr. Gutsche is Chief of
Anesthesiology at the Alaska Native Hospital and in this capacity
has visited all of the field hospitals in our new state. He writes of
dog-sled trips, minus 40-degree temperatures, 30 m.p.h. winds, sun
set at midnight, and sunrise at 1:30 a.m. All of the Gutsches love
Ala.ska and claim that if you haven’t been there, “you don’t know
what you’re missing!”
It’s a boy, born June 11, for Dr. and Mrs. Bob Yowell in the
Department of Pathology. Mrs. Ernestine Joy, L.P.N. on Minot,
and Mr. Joy annoiince the birth of a son in June and Mrs. Linda
Hackett, R.N. on Minot, and ilr. Hackett also announce the birth
of a son in June. Mrs. Jimmie Morris, cashier in ilPDC, and her
husband, Marvin, have a new baby girl, Laurie Ann, born on
June 1. This is their fifth child and second daughter. Dr. and Mrs.
(Continued, next page)
eeping in Xoucn