by Kirsten Brown

The Ohio Osteopathic Association (OOA) honored George Dunigan for his 32 years of service with the 2006 OOA Meritorious Service Award. The award, the highest mark of distinction that the association bestows upon a non-physician, is traditionally presented to an individual in recognition of outstanding contributions to the osteopathic professions in scientific, philanthropic or other fields of public service.

Dunigan fits that description perfectly. As the OOA and OU-COM director of government relations, he not only performs an active part in advancing the rights of the profession, but also helped develop the securing passage of the 1975 House Bill 229. This was the bill that called for the establishment of Ohio University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine.

“I was hired to develop the legislation to implement the creation of an osteopathic college,” Dunigan explains. “There were only nine at the time, and OU-COM ended up being the tenth.”

Dunigan recalls how they settled on the OU campus for the school’s home.

“In the original legislation, it was determined that the board of regents would decide where the college of osteopathic medicine would be located,” he says. “It became apparent that OU had an appealing location on West Green. At the time, the university population on West Green had gone down, and there were several empty dormitories, which the state and the university were paying off the bond indebtedness. So we decided to renovate these existing facilities, rather than starting from scratch and building up from the ground.”

As OU-COM settled into its new residence, Dunigan was charged with leading the way to shaping support for OU-COM, although he insists he was only one of many.

“It was truly a confluence of people coming together,” he says. “The osteopathic profession came together with its money and its intention and its organization to join forces behind this initiative.”

Dunigan says the contributing physicians each gave $250 for six years in order to fund the effort. Once that was achieved, it was decided that the money would continue to be raised, eventually aiding in the purchase of microscopes for the first class and creating the school’s first scholarships.

“That was the first time in my memory that I ever recalled a professional community making that kind of commitment to one of their schools,” he muses. “I was a small part of that, but the commitment of the profession and OU-COM’s need melded because of synchronicity — and a lot of hard work. It was a wonderful project to be involved in.”

Even today, Dunigan continues as an dynamic promoter of the profession, regularly cooperating with key state and federal officials on policy concerning medical education, Medicaid, workers compensation and professional liability insurance (PLI).

“What I do is I monitor legislation in the government agency rules that impact on the practice of osteopathic medicine,” he explains. “As the director of government relations, I do all the government liaison work for the college and the OOA in the lobbying assembly and the U.S. Congress. But, primarily I’ve worked with the Ohio General Assembly and the governor’s office and cabinet for more than 10 years now.”

At regular intervals, he works with the state medical licensing board, as well as agencies outside the osteopathic realm, such as the chiropractic association.

More recently, Dunigan piloted the osteopathic profession on PLI reform efforts, and was appointed by the Ohio Senate to serve on the state’s Medical Malpractice Commission. In that role, he worked with legislators on a variety of issues such as medical practice rights, malpractice insurance, management care companies and reimbursements by insurance companies.

But before these years devoted to the osteopathic field, Dunigan was, in his college days, a merchant seamen traversing the Atlantic to ports in Europe and North Africa. He returned to the States to earn his degree and took a job as a teacher and coach at Logan High School.

In Logan, he also simultaneously served two terms as a city councilman. As a district representative and research assistant for then-Congressman Clarence Miller, Dunigan saw the foundation laid for his future career.

Miller, who represented the former tenth district of Ohio, proved to be a meaningful mentor for Dunigan in the political arena.

“Clarence was one of the most respected men around,” he says. “It didn’t matter if you were Republican or Democrat, he bent over backward for you. He was a wonderful man and honest as the day is long. His name on my resume really opened a lot of doors.”

However, Dunigan attributes his involvement in osteopathic medicine to another man, whom he came upon while coaching in Logan.

“John ‘Jack’ Rauch was the team physician for our high school teams and also my physician, when I lived in Logan,” Dunigan says. “He introduced me to osteopathic medicine, so because of him, when I went to Columbus looking for an opportunity to get involved, one of the stops I made was at OOA.”

From there unfolded three decades of service to the osteopathic field. In 1991, Dunigan received the Phillips Medal of Public Service from OU-COM. That year he was also made an honorary alumnus of Ohio University. His service, however, culminated in the reception of the Meritorious Service Award Friday, June 23, at the AOA President’s Lunch. The ceremony, OOA’s 108^th annual meeting, was held in the Lodge at Sawmill Creek, in Sandusky, Ohio.

But the biggest perk of Dunigan’s job hasn’t been this recognition.

“I sure do love being around the students,” Dunigan says. “The best part of my job is the opportunity to share what I do and my time with the students. To me, they are the most important part of the osteopathic community — so bright and energetic and giving.”