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WALTER MOREHEAD
Secretary
Board of Trustees
University Health Systems

June 6, 2000

Interviewer: Marion Blackburn

Marion Blackburn: Tell me about yourself. You're an engineer, is that correct?

Walt Morehead: Yes, I am an engineer by trade, specializing in color technology and instrumentation.

Marion Blackburn: What is color technology?

Walt Morehead: Well, that is the science of color. Most people think that they know color because they can see red, white and blue, but there are more than a million different colors and descriptions and it became very important when consumer products, regardless of where they went, they were the exact same color because you equate color with quality which may not necessarily be true. It also has measurements where you can make it uniform and therefore be colorfied.

Marion Blackburn: Wow, I am one of those who would have thought I knew color. I think that has become real important especially as the hospital has developed its new logo and I know that the specific colors are very important to be identified with the hospital. Are you still working as an engineer?

Walt Morehead: No, I am retired. I retired in July of 1991.

Marion Blackburn: Then you started your second job, I guess.

Walt Morehead: I did some consultant work for about four months with Anchor Brush in Tennessee. A lot of that had to do with formulation of color for new toothbrushes.

Marion Blackburn: I guess from here to sort of zero in specifically on your experience with the hospital and your work with the hospital, could you start at the beginning of your association with PCMH and maybe describe how you became involved with the hospital.

Walt Morehead: In the first place, we moved here from Cincinnati in October of 1974. My wife was a nurse and worked part time until 1983. I had a couple of visits to the hospital and I got to know them and I am familiar with the old hospital on Fifth Street.

Marion Blackburn: Were you actually a patient over on Fifth Street?

Walt Morehead: Yes.

Marion Blackburn: I guess they were crowded over there toward the end of the stay over there, as that is what I am hearing.

Walt Morehead: I am not sure whether it was near the end of the stay and I am trying to think of the exact year that I was over there but I can't remember exactly but I think it was in 1979.

Marion Blackburn: So you became familiar with the old hospital. Now, were you involved in the early efforts to move the hospital or was it just with this present site that you were involved.

Walt Morehead: Just the present site. I was involved within the community, Board of Education and various clubs, United Way and NAACP and several other organizations.

Marion Blackburn: I have a hard time getting people to brag on themselves. I think what Beth said was that you are very, very active in the community. In your involvement with these organizations, did you become interested, I guess, in the healthcare of eastern North Carolina? Did it sort of develop from your community work?

Walt Morehead: Yes, that was always because traveling around in eastern North Carolina it was quite obvious that there was a great need for improved healthcare and listening to some of the complaints of people out there made it even more so.

Marion Blackburn: Your work with Pitt County Board of Education?

Walt Morehead: I was on the Board from 1986 to 1990 I believe.

Marion Blackburn: That was my first job with The Daily Reflector as education reporter. I guess I started covering the school board after you already had completed your term. That is a very difficult job.

Walt Morehead: I know.

Marion Blackburn: You know better than I do even though I saw a lot of it I never had to do it. A lot of schools, a lot of needs, a lot of pressure, a lot of politics. That sort of I guess will be something I would like to talk about a little bit before we get to the politics of your work with the board, when did you join the Hospital Board?

Walt Morehead: In March of 1996.

Marion Blackburn: Was this something that you wanted to do or did they draft you?

Walt Morehead: It was voluntary. The information out in the community was there was a great need for Board members on different Boards. My good friend, Reverend Arlee Griffin, I knew some of the work he did on the Board and I am a great admirer of him and his ethics and overall community involvement. He was a former Board member.

Marion Blackburn: I guess he was leaving or had left.

Walt Morehead: Yes, he was the Pastor of my church.

Marion Blackburn: You admired him a lot and he sort of said that this would be something that would be good for you?

Walt Morehead: I did discuss it with him and we discussed the need for candidate diversity.

Marion Blackburn: When you came on the Board in March of 1996 did you have a sort of fire or passion or something you really wanted to push for?

Walt Morehead: Let me think a little bit to go back to there and see just where the fire really was. I didn't have that fire as strong as once I got on and saw what the real situation, problems and the magnitude of the complexity of the things that were going on. I always had an interest in having input for the medical community, my wife being a nurse, and seeing some of the high rates of infant mortality, the diabetic people, high blood pressure and heart problems throughout the area.

Marion Blackburn: So, you maybe came on the Board with certainly a commitment and a dedication and it sounds like once you served awhile you saw what the needs were.

Walt Morehead: Yes, I felt that it would be a good thing to integrate some of my experience with industry and the community, especially in the multicultural arena. It was pulling the people together, meetings and understanding what the problems were and looking at the broad picture and also my technical background with engineering. When I came here my first assignment was pre-start up engineering for the Proctor & Gamble plant. I knew there was a lot of expanding and building going on here so I felt that it would be something that would be needed on the Board.

Marion Blackburn: Specifically, I guess you sort of kind of referred to this and this would probably be a good time to talk about it. You speak of the need for diversity and certainly the healthcare problems in the African/American community which for so long there hadn't been the representation on the Boards and the push to make sure that healthcare extended to those communities. Did you feel a responsibility physically to any group of people or to make sure that certain concerns received attention?

Walt Morehead: First of all, yes, but I am representing the entire community and when I say diversity, the appreciation of diversity, I believe that it gets you the best results and I don't believe that it is something that should be driven by the law, but because I think it is the best business decision. Using all of your best resources I believe will let you come out with a much better product. I think each element of diversity has something positive to offer to the whole organization.

Marion Blackburn: You came on the Board in March of 1996, do remember your earlier challenges? I know we are going to speak about a later challenge, namely, privatization, but before we get to privatization are there any other challenges you remember from your early days, things that surprised you, battles you had to fight, things that sort of stand out in your mind?

Walt Morehead: No, I was first impressed with the professionalism of the Board. I was eager to learn everything I could about the position and was pleased and amazed at the amount of training offered. The different manuals, Trustee Institute, the availability of material, the eagerness of the staff to discuss any problems, that people didn't particularly get bent out of shape when I disagreed with them. I would consider it the most professional Board that I have worked with and I pride myself on speaking on what I think is right and I usually do a little research before I speak. I think one of the biggest challenges as we move on is to continually infuse the Board with people with the needed skills and expertise to keep a first class Board and to move away from politics or favoritism regardless of ability.

Marion Blackburn: Speaking of politics, I had the chance to speak with Dr. Ed Monroe for another article and just having read some of the history of ECU and the School of Medicine, it is amazing just how political things can be when you think about something as basic as healthcare. Healthcare for rural communities where things like diabetes, heart and vascular problems and obesity are such problems, have become political issues and you are right, they shouldn't be. That is a very interesting perspective that you bring which is just to make sure that we have constantly a commitment to good thinking people and the training to do this job. I hear it is a very complicated job. It is not a Board position where you come in once a month and sit there and say aye and nay. You have a lot of work, a lot of research and reading to do.

Walt Morehead: Yes, and I think when I speak of diversity I am not just talking about people, I am talking about diverse skills and I think we don't have total homogeneity on the Board, we need skills from the medical and technical community to education, construction, all types of backgrounds and experience as well given to a good recipe for success or effectiveness.

Marion Blackburn: Let's move ahead to privatization.

Walt Morehead: Yes, that has been my greatest challenge. In the training and the workshops, we had some outstanding presenters and I made a great effort to see just what was going on throughout the country, the trends, the hospitals that were going out of business, the things that were happening with unscrupulous HMOs during my travels. I traveled quite a bit in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio and Kentucky. I made it my business to talk to people and look at their hospitals and their medical situation, reading the news articles and things like that. I became thoroughly convinced that this wasn't something nice but this was absolutely necessary. The biggest problem I ran into was working with the community overall and particularly the black community to embrace the resistance.

There was a lot of misinformation and it was very difficult for me to understand why so many people would believe the negative aspects from people who had never done anything for the community. It was a setback and it made it very difficult. I did talk to several groups and tried to give them all the information on what this was about and the fact that it would be a great positive for the whole community. The people that would benefit most from it would be the black folks as I found a lot of people badly vocalizing opposition to that.

Marion Blackburn: Absolutely. There was a lot of resistance to it.

Walt Morehead: I think it was based on a lack of trust.

Marion Blackburn: When you talked to those groups and you speak of embracing the resistance, how did you try to sort of persuade or win people, or reassure people?

Walt Morehead: I told people to look at it this way from an aspect of financial or running a business, if you don't do this and you lose seventy percent of your income from outside areas, where do you think you would be. Take a look at the situation and all the articles that have been produced from the situations down in Florida and Philadelphia and all over and where the people that did not go private. The biggest thing was convincing them that private non-profit was mostly a governance change and I could realize that many people had an aversion to privacy because traditionally privacy meant exclusion. It meant somehow you would be excluded from the rest of the country club, but this was not that type of situation at all. I also tried to rationalize that in many cases given all backgrounds and experiences where that sometimes you could take advantage of what was private. In other words growing up there were private swimming pools, private lakes, fishing and hunting areas and things that the public could not use but by knowing the people that were private, there were a lot of gains by taking advantage of the privacy there. You usually were better paid when you worked for the private organization.

Marion Blackburn: I think that is probably the best I have heard anybody sum it up; that this term private has traditionally been associated with exclusion and I think that is definitely what people thought. Of course, we know how it turned out; the Commissioners voted for it and now the hospital is run as a private, not-for-profit, which you describe as a change in governance. Where are some of the benefits you have seen just in a general way?

Walt Morehead: The thing which was understood before was our ability to invest in stocks and things that will give us a greater return. The benefits also are to eliminate the delays in decision-making. There were many critical decisions that we had to wait on the County Commissioners, who in my opinion didn't really understand the complexity of the problems. We would lose quite a bit by these delays or it could be detrimental to us when there are certain decisions in which you have to gather the facts and go ahead and make your decision. We have that ability now. The greatest thing is the ability to associate with the outside of Pitt County organizations and that has proven to be a positive for both elements. One of the biggest things that I can notice from when I first came here is that most of the ambulances and if anything happened they were headed for Duke if you wanted good treatment. Now in just driving around I notice most of the traffic is heading this way for emergencies and I can see one of the most difficult things to get across to many of the local people is the advantage of the capital improvements. If you actually look at the growth of this organization from lets say 1974 or 1975 to now, you went from $10 million to $400 million and most of that money has gone in new buildings, new land, new technology, new equipment, communication, and information systems in making this a much better hospital. Also, I think that it has been a great recruiting tool in that we have been able to recruit some of the top- notch doctors and specialists because of our track record.

Marion Blackburn: And hardly a day goes by that you don't hear the name Ranny Chitwood but he is definitely someone what is a world leader and from just from what I have been seeing with my work talking to people, there is a lot of dynamic research taking place here, procedures in cancer and medicine, and pediatrics and we are only one of two pediatric inpatient rehabilitation centers in the state. I was really surprised by that.

Walt Morehead: The affiliation with East Carolina School of Medicine was one of the main reasons for all of the growth and improvements and that was a pleasant surprise to me in how well that the two organizations worked together, including the Board, and willingness to accept feedback. That has brought worldwide recognition and I think we are one of the few organizations that works together the way we do with the state and the medical center with the hospital and still come out with a good profit margin. The Affiliation Agreement, there is one particular clause in there that I had to repeat several times that in order for this to succeed that all entities including the Board of Trustees, the County Commissioners, ECU School of Medicine must communicate and cooperate in order for this to succeed. This has borne out, the more we cooperate and communicate its success.

Marion Blackburn: I have to go back now to 1974, I guess Cincinnati, your home state is Ohio?

Walt Morehead: No, my home state is western North Carolina, I was brought up in the Black Mountain area near Asheville but I moved to Cincinnati in 1952 when I got out of the Air Force where I was an airborne electronics technician. If I wanted to get a job I had to leave North Carolina. It was a good move and I enjoyed Cincinnati, it was a good city with parks, ballgames, symphony orchestra and it was really a nice place to live. My work was with AVCO Electronics before I moved with Proctor & Gamble in 1964. It was the old Crosley televisions and Crosley refrigerators. Those were the original owners and then it evolved into AVCO Electronics.

Marion Blackburn: So you were an electrical engineer?

Walt Morehead: Electronic engineering was my major.

Marion Blackburn: Did you go to school in North Carolina?

Walt Morehead: I started at A & T in Greensboro, North Carolina before I went into the military. I think my most in-depth training was in the military and then I spent some time at the University of Cincinnati. I did not graduate but I got married and had a family and I guess my most proud achievement was my attendance at Rensalear Polytechnic Institute in one of the programs for color technology.

Marion Blackburn: That's real interesting and I think what I was getting at is you came to Greenville in 1974 and I remember Greenville back in those days. It was a tobacco town and I think ECU had just recently become a University and a lot people still called it ECTC. The hospital, of course, was the old brick hospital and as I understand it, it was real crowded over there and people were talking about a medical school and there was a lot of fighting to be done about it and from what I understand there was a lot of fighting to get funding for this hospital.

Walt Morehead: Yes, and Dr. Best was heavily involved.

Marion Blackburn: It seems like having spent twenty-two years in Cincinnati, what did you think?

Walt Morehead: Well, part of my duties were to come up with a computer printout or worksheet compiling all the results from all the different plants and I noticed on the bulletin board that they had something in North Carolina. I inquired about it and everything and I knew I was bound for an interview. Frankly, it was a shock with the difference in eastern North Carolina and western North Carolina at that time. I am a rural person and I like to fish and garden and things like that. The most difficult part of it was my wife. She just couldn't stomach it for awhile but then she finally decided that she would and she became a much more rounded person. She got into ceramics and she owns a ceramic shop and is involved with the church and several organizations now, which she wouldn't have done if we had not set roots here.

Marion Blackburn: Is she a city person?

Walt Morehead: Yes, and the biggest, I guess, conflict was the school situation at that time. We had one child in high school and one in middle school. We had some battles over the years. I remember with coaches and things like that. When I moved here I think I went to the first football game and all the black folks sat way back over in a corner somewhere and I would sit on the fifty-yard line and it caused quite a stir. That was a booster area and I was a booster. I think I developed respect from a lot of people but some didn't like me but to this day I think I still have the respect because I stood up for what was right.

Marion Blackburn: In 1974 that was still actually, as you well know very early.

Walt Morehead: Yes, and housing was quite a problem at that time. Proctor & Gamble said we could live anywhere we wanted to and we came here on a house-hunting trip and it was quite a job to find a house and get all the financing and everything. At that time money was supposed to be tight and I couldn't get any financing anywhere and I think First Citizens was the only one that claimed to have money at the time. I looked over the whole area including Brook Valley, Grifton, Lake Ellsworth, Glenwood and everywhere else. Finally I found an area north of town called Brookhaven which is a small black neighborhood. There were only two houses in that area at the time and we said we would go there and that same day money became available at a very low interest rate. One of the most interesting things was there was a local minister here who had to move in the middle of the night in order to move in a house off of Tenth Street.

Marion Blackburn: It was a traditionally white area?

Walt Morehead: Yes and his name was Ron Taylor. He had to move in at 2:00 a.m. and when they woke up he was there. It was quite a challenge but I have enjoyed it all and have made a lot of friends along with the hospital, football and baseball.

Marion Blackburn: It seems like with the hospital and with some of your other Boards, it sounds like a lot of what you have done has been sort of Walt Morehead as a person, as a father, as a homeowner, as someone new to the community. You have had your hands full, I guess.

Walt Morehead: Well, I am this type of person. As I said I came from a very small area in the mountains and it was instilled in me at a very early age that I grew up in a community where there was some wealthy folks that came in for the summer, some middle class white farmers and there were some white sharecroppers that lived on the other side. At an early age I started evolving away from the sharecroppers and my mother told me I was no better than anybody was but I was as good as anybody. That has stuck with me so I am comfortable with the janitor or the college president. I am not in awe when I have to work with anybody. Since I retired I feel that I have been blessed and one of the main things I am doing is trying to pay some of it back.

We were involved in the Franklin Graham crusade and the 2000 crusade we just had here last month. My wife is a Deacon.

Marion Blackburn: What church are you a member of?

Walt Morehead: Cornerstone Missionary Baptist Church.

Marion Blackburn: I have to ask and, of course, nobody can know what the future holds, how long have you been Secretary of the Board?

Walt Morehead: This is my second term. Time flies.

Marion Blackburn: So you have already been two years as Secretary. What do you see as the future? The great big question-the future of healthcare for eastern North Carolina-the future of this hospital; some issues you think are going to be important?

Walt Morehead: I see nothing but a positive future if we continue on the same trend if we can keep a CEO with great vision. I think the biggest obstacle; the most important thing I can see is with the selection process for Board members and if they keep it professional and non-political. That could have a great impact on where we go and where we do not go. We will see some expansions in the future and within the next years we should grow even bigger.

Marion Blackburn: There are some specific plans I have heard about which might be taking shape soon. You do see continued growth and expansion to be something very important. What about outreach efforts?

Walt Morehead: You mean for acquiring new hospitals and things like that?

Marion Blackburn: Well, one thing I hear a lot about is the need for better care for the rural communities.

Walt Morehead: Yes, and while there is some of that now, some of it can and can't be discussed but I think it is very important to reach out and bring medical services to the rural area and see where it is needed and it can only grow a better understanding of what's is available and all that. I see a great possibility of some political fighting when we start doing this. It will be a very ticklish situation when we do something that includes everyone. Our first step forward is diabetic and, hopefully, one of my things that I have suggested we can a little more deeply involved in the research and treatment of sickle cell anemia. I see a great need for some development on the North side of the river.

Marion Blackburn: That area was so devastated from the flood.

Walt Morehead: There hasn't been anything there for years. You go across the river you cannot find a decent restaurant, golf course, or hardly anything. I think that everything is heading east and South but I think it is also going to have to be going north, whatever it takes. One of the things I see when I mention growth is that keeps high expectations of not only Board members but also all employees. I think employee satisfaction is important and my bottom line is quality healthcare. That is number one for the bottom line.

Marion Blackburn: You are in a very special position to sort of talk about is maybe the changes that you have seen in the African/American community and maybe how your experience as a leader within that community has affected you and maybe how you have affected others. You have been a leader in the community in general and specifically a leader in the black community with efforts to sort of open people's minds to you sitting on the fifty yard line and coming in and borrowing money. You have really been a leader. Would you like to talk about those?

Walt Morehead: Well, I can say from my perspective not only being from a black point but the community has been to have and to have not. I think when we spoke of diversity, one of my biggest things is the elimination of "isms" I think. That includes racism, sexism, favoritism and classism. One of the drawbacks that I see in the black community there was some resentment when managers came in to like Proctor & Gamble and some places like that and got better paying jobs and positions and things like that.

One of the newest things I see happening quietly in this community is relocation of retirees from up North and the West. Black folks with means are now moving into town and that should have a great effect and could have an impact politically. There is still some division there because I wouldn't say it is totally classism but some of that is from years back that there is some separation concern about what kind of house, where you live, what fraternity or sorority you belong to, and I think that's true across lines anywhere. The greatest need for the community is unity and for us to realize that we are all in the same boat together. There are no big "I"s and little "You"s.

Marion Blackburn: I appreciate you speaking so candidly about all your experiences and I have asked you a whole lot of questions and if there is anything I haven't covered that you like to talk about, either your personal experiences or some issues you would like to talk about. I invite you to do that now.

Walt Morehead: Well, I would say that I see a need for some unity and I believe the churches are going to have to lead that effort. Black and white churches are going to have to start working together and understanding each other. I think most of the division is because of all types, all lack of understanding. Some efforts are being made on that front now so I think most of our problems are from lack of understanding that we must all be willing to lets say clean out a file and take out things that we found out that we didn't believe in all our lives that are not true and that is a new thing to our file.

I would say that one of the good experiences I had during my employment with Proctor & Gamble was to get associated with workshops with a group called Ron Brown and Price Cobb. Price Cobb is the author of the book called "Black Rage". It was a great understanding of your inner self and internal and external forces. I do think and appreciate that I have developed quite a few friends, black and white, throughout the area. There is Tom Irons-we work well together. I admire some of the outreach programs that he has been involved in.

Marion Blackburn: He is doing a very serious outreach program right now with the Outer Banks Hospital. I guess he is in charge of a lot of those outreach places that never really had care.

Walt Morehead: I am on the HealthEast Board now. I think they are doing an excellent job and it is something that is needed.