Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 8:46 a.m., 10-20-05.

On Wednesday, Oct. 19, the college remembered two of its own on the one-year anniversary of their tragic death during the crash of Corporate Airlines Flight 5966. At noon, faculty and staff gathered in front of Grosvenor Hall next to a wreath that had been placed there in remembrance of Bridget Wagner, D.O. (’94), assistant dean for the college’s Northeast Ohio Centers for Osteopathic Research and Education (CORE), and Kathleen Gebard, administrator for the Southwest CORE.

Gebard and Wagner were en route to the “Humanism in Medicine” conference at Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine (KCOM) of A. T. Still University of Health Sciences, sponsored by Arnold P. Gold Foundation, when the airliner in which they were passengers crashed on its final approach in Kirksville, Mo.

Wagner was a 1994 graduate of the college and joined the university in 2001. As a CORE assistant dean, she served as the academic officer for medical students in their third and fourth years. In addition, she also was the liaison for the CORE system and its affiliated hospitals and colleges of osteopathic medicine.

Gebard joined Ohio University in 1989 and as a CORE administrator in the Dayton area, she provided advising and guidance for medical students in their third and fourth years, monitored their progress and coordinated medical training opportunities.

Dean Jack Brose, D.O., led a brief ceremony, during which he invited comments about the pair and invoked a moment of silence in their honor.

“It’s unbelievable that it’s been a year. It seems like just yesterday that they were here with us,” said Brose.

“I don’t need to tell you how much we miss Kathy and Bridget. I think this is a time we can remember their lives and how much they meant to us. I have their pictures on my desk, so I see them every day. Both were tremendous student advocates. Both were wonderful family people that were so important to their families. They were extremely important people to the college. We will never, ever forget them.”

“I really appreciated both of them and the way they interacted with students and their approaches to medical education,” says Keith Watson, D.O., associate dean for graduate medical education. “They were really dedicated and wonderful people.

“Bridget, as a physician, had touched a lot of people through her humanitarian work.

“Kathy did a lot of great things in the Grandview community and the city of Dayton. She helped advanced student education and the missions of the CORE system and, more generally, osteopathic medicine.

“She touched a lot of people that we’ve only found about over the last year. She was involved with diversity programs that we have in place in minority schools, such as Dunbar High School. She also provided leadership through Franklin Covey seminars in Dayton area.”

Jill Harman, associate director of admissions, recalled one of the last times she had seen Wagner. Wagner was actively involved in helping to expose minority students to medicine and opportunities in the health-care arena.

“She was here with a group of high school students in Project Gridiron that she brought to the college. Because of her and the CEO of the program, we’ve been able to keep that relationship alive,” said Harman. “She laid the groundwork for so many things. She made a lasting impact.”

“I think we do continue to celebrate their lives,” said Peter Dane, D.O., associate dean for predoctoral education, “and their contributions to the school. Their names emerge frequently in all of our deliberations. ‘This is what Kathy did. This is what Bridget did.’ They will continue to be part of our legacy.”

“I had an opportunity to share Kathy’s story and Kathy’s mission statement with a group of university freshmen,” said Rosemary Butcher, administrative coordinator in academic affairs, “as I was working with them on their mission statements. She’s touched more than just the students in our college.”

“I find Kathy’s and Bridget’s mission statements personally uplifting,” said Watson, “and I carry Kathy’s with me as a personal remembrance. Their words speak volumes to me about the meaning of character.”

KCOM dedicated the day in honor of the 13 crash victims and the survivors, John Krogh, Ph.D., KCOM administrative regional supervisor for the Utah region, and his assistant, Wendy Bonham, KCOM coordinator for the Utah region.

The ceremony at Kirksville began at 9 a.m., with a speech by Krogh, said Joe Vincent, media coordinator in the Office of University Relations.

“Dr. Krogh talked about how he survived, being thrown from the plane and crawling away from the wreckage with a broken hip,” Vincent says. “He had quite a story to tell.”

KCOM hopes to revive the meaning of the original conference, while moving forward with the “Footprints” seminar funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The seminar focused on care for the dying, bringing compassion and humanism for patients, whose conditions are beyond help by medical science, and their families. In the afternoon, medical students of KCOM, along with faculty, were to complete community service tasks including delivering food with the Meals-on-Wheels program and visiting nursing homes.

A. T. Still University held a “Day of Compassion.”

“The idea was to show the human side of medicine,” Vincent says. “Only half of medicine is the technical part. The other half is the human side.”

“Last year we suffered a terrible tragedy,” says Kathy Campbell, assistant to the dean of KCOM. “Those coming to Kirksville were coming to attend a compassion conference. This year we followed through on that intention through our ‘Day of Compassion.’ We canceled last year’s conference because of the plane crash.”

“The intent of the day was for our educators to teach our students how to be compassionate physicians. Krogh’s address helped to heighten the message of compassion through recalling his ordeal that day.”

KCOM plans to name a room in the currently under construction Information Technology Center building in honor of those killed in the crash.

The Dayton Daily News will be publishing a series on the crash of Flight 5966 beginning Sunday, Oct. 23.