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.
- 30 -
News for
the week of Oct
17 –
Oct 22
