Pitt County Hospital Collection

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When Jack Richardson came to Greenville in 1966, he signed on with a small county hospital without a formal budget. When he retired in 1989, he left a thriving organization with nearly 600 patient beds, a multi-million-dollar budget and a vital partnership with a thriving medical school.

As the hospital built on its hometown roots to become a major medical center, Richardson guided it as a manager in the late 1960s, then moved into its top position — administrator — during its critical growth years.

“There were a lot of people who were skeptical,” he says of the hospital’s continued push for progress, and especially of the idea to relocate and rebuild. “There was such a demand for space, and people were really concerned. Finally, after a couple or three years, the concept of a new hospital was finally born.”

Richardson, a Nash County native, attended school in Richmond, Va., and was living there when Pitt Memorial executive C.D. Ward invited him for an interview. He was so glad to be back in his homeland that he kissed the ground, his wife, Lily, remembers. Arriving here, they saw the old brick hospital rise before them. “It was a prominent structure,” he says. “It was the only thing at that end of town.”

From the beginning, doctors and board members talked about the possibility of a medical school in Greenville and he embraced their sense of vision. That dream took years of building, brick by brick and dollar by dollar.

“We were so busy with day-to-day things that we didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about that,” he remembers. “We had nursing shortages, we had money and space shortages. In that old hospital we had people in the halls.”

From that hospital, built with federal funds from the Hill-Burton Act, Richardson helped create a professional, multi-specialty health-care community. He did this by cultivating good relations with county, state and regional officials, earning their good will through hard work, honesty and old-fashioned persistence.

He recalls how during the hospital’s funding struggles, administrators in Charlotte and other cities accused him of rabble rousing in the east.

“When I would go to meetings in Charlotte, it was not unusual for me to come out at a break and a television camera would be set up at the door,” he remembers. “They would ask if I was from Greenville, where they are trying to build a medical school. I would bring them up to date and tell them, from my perspective, how things were going. I didn’t leave off the fact that you go where the need is. If the need had not been in eastern North Carolina, then the hospital and the medical school would not be there.”

In 1971 he became administrator, the highest hospital role at that time. One of his first tasks was to develop a budget and integrate Medicare and Medicaid payments into it. The hospital’s revenues were already near $1 million and technology was entering the field as never before.

“Funding was always a challenge,” Richardson says. “If you don’t have equipment in your hospital when doctors come, they can’t practice medicine. So you have to make commitments to technology.”

His other commitments grew, as well. On Saturday mornings he met with doctors to hear their presentations and lectures, helping him understand the specifics of hospital operations.

In 1977 he led the hospital’s largest effort ever as it moved to a new location. It was far more than a change of address.

“The new hospital cost about $20 million to build, and the architects warned me that it was going to cost that much to operate it the first year,” he says. “I thought he couldn’t be serious, but sure enough, when I prepared that next budget, I showed it to (county commissioner) Charles Gaskins and he told me I was out of my mind. Our budget was about $20 million.”

Funding and the ongoing struggle to expand helped define Richardson’s many roles as negotiator, leader and trusted peer. By the mid-1970s, the medical school was taking shape and Richardson relied on other leaders to help ensure its success. Among them were William Laupus, M.D., first dean of the medical school, Edwin Monroe, M.D., then associate dean of the medical school and a strong supporter, and Leo Jenkins, university president and its staunchest champion.

“We had good meetings, we had open meetings, we had some discussions where we didn’t agree, but we tried to find a common ground,” he says.

The major accomplishments under his leadership have remained to this day. The “new” hospital is a 23-year-old medical center. The School of Medicine is regularly ranked among the nation’s highest for family medicine. The rehabilitation center is one of the state’s best and the medical district — only a concept in his day — extends deep into the former farms and scrublands of Pitt County.

“Some people did not think there would be much future in a small community,” he says. “I don’t really worry about the future of the medical center, because I feel like it is in good hands and I know it will grow on its own from here on out, as long as it has good leadership.”

Jack W. Richardson