With a colleague population nearing 3,000, there are a lot of talented people working at St. Tammany Health System – and not always in the ways you might expect.
There’s the piano-playing Public Safety officer, for example, and the cello-playing pediatrician. There’s the IT pro who crafts oversized balloon sculptures in her spare time. There’s the physical therapist who hams it up while costuming as various pop-culture characters at local parties and other events.
And then there are the visual artists – the painters, the sculptors and myriad others throughout the health system – who employ their innate skills to interpret the world for the rest of us.
It is the work of one such artist-colleague that gets the spotlight in today’s installment in our 70-part look back at St. Tammany Health System’s seven-decade history.
Installment No. 45: Drawn to care
Today’s artifact: A framed and matted drawing of St. Tammany Parish Hospital as it appeared in 1987, created by former St. Tammany Health System colleague Stephen McNair and signed by the members of the hospital’s Dietary Department.
Why it is significant: By trade, Stephen McNair was a storeroom manager for St. Tammany Parish Hospital’s Dietary Department. But a knack for organization wasn’t his only talent.
Turns out, he was one heck of an artist, and in 1987 he put his gift to work, creating a detailed line drawing of the Covington hospital for the department’s then-director, Tracie Bougon Tobin.
It’s a beautiful likeness, capturing the horseshoe driveway that once led cars from South Tyler Street to the hospital’s main entrance, as well as the towering pine trees that have all but defined the Northshore landscape for as long as anyone can remember.
The then-33-year-old building had undergone a few expansions at the time, including the addition of a wing with a second floor, but – charmingly – the original hospital structure was still part of it.
To make it all even more special, every member of the department at the time signed McNair’s drawing – 36 names in all. Eventually, it was matted, framed and hung in the Dietary office for posterity.
The hospital has changed a lot since then. That original 1954 hospital building is long gone, replaced by a fully modern four-story structure.
The Dietary Department has changed, too. It is now called Food and Nutrition Services and, as of this writing, it is in the final stages of a stem-to-stern remodeling of the kitchen and dining room that ranks as the biggest it has seen.
Both McNair and Tobin have moved on, too – but upon her departure, Tobin gifted the drawing to the department, both as a tribute to the familial connection among the hospital’s colleagues and also as a touchstone to her team’s time together.
“To be displayed in the Food Services area with pride and gratitude,” she wrote in an inscription on the back. “Remember how we were and how far you’ve come! Thank you. Tracie.”
Do you have a St. Tammany Parish Hospital story or item to share? We’d love to hear about it! Email us at CommDept@stph.org.
Next week – Installment No. 46: Let the games begin!
Last week – Installment No. 44: Can you dig it?