Call this a shining moment where health care in this community matters beyond measure because of the vision and dedication of the many who have put their hearts and dollars into today and into the tomorrows to come.
You can only imagine the ground-breaking on Oct. 8, 1953, on the 29.84-acre tract along Owen Drive that once was home to the Sandrock Airport owned by the late John and Katie Sandrock, the couple who would donate the property for what on June 12, 1956, would become Cape Fear Valley Hospital.
“I am sure this institution will be one of the greatest things that ever happened in Cumberland County,” James H. Clark, chairman of the N.C. Medical Care Commission, would say on April 19, 1953, at a cornerstone ceremony dedicated to health care for all in Cumberland County.
And you can only imagine that those men of vision to include E.N. Brower, Bernard Stein, T.M. Hunter, L.C. Thornton and Robert L. Moser were proudly watching from heaven above Friday when Cape Fear Valley Health leaders and community supporters christened the towering, $33 million Center for Medical Education & Neuroscience Institute at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center.
“When God and a community come together, great things happen,” Dr. Don Maharty, 55, director of the Medical Residency program for the health system, would tell 300 donors Thursday evening in the spacious Ellison Auditorium. “Today is a good day to rejoice. This unifies a community like you wouldn’t believe. We can’t tell you how grateful we are. Great things have been done, and greater things will be done in this city.”
All because of those in this community to include the late Tom and Elizabeth McLean, Tony and Ann Cimaglia and Dorothy B. Wyatt for whom the fifth floor Neuroscience Institute is named in their honor. And others such as the Armstrong, Riddle and Williams families; Dr. Wes and Lucy Turk Hollis Jones; and Dr. David and Jenna Abbes Schutzer.
No boasting Thursday evening when Tony and Ann Cimaglia entered the double doors of the fifth floor of the Neuroscience Institute.
Just a humble reverence.
No swank Thursday evening when Jay and Charlene Wyatt stood alongside the name of Jay Wyatt’s 91-year-old mother, who could not be on hand for this night of celebration as Dorothy “Dot” Wyatt struggles with the debilitating Alzheimer’s disease.
But just a part of this shining moment.
‘This is going to make a difference’
“If my mother knew,” Jay Wyatt, 62, says, “this would be a blessing she could share with others. I know the severity of what Alzheimer’s can do to your life. This means to me we can help others in this community when we find our loved ones — fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters — dealing with this. A place where they can go to one place and learn about Alzheimer’s and dementia.
“It makes my heart feel incredibly good the Cimaglias and the Wyatts can help somebody because of the doctors and physician assistants and staff who can put emphasis on this disease. I am excited not just for the fifth floor. I’m excited for that whole building for what we are going to do to educate our doctors and students. This is going to make a difference as a teaching hospital. It’s first class.”
Wife Charlene Wyatt is emotional about the Neuroscience Institute.
“I am grateful because it has been a long dance,” she says, and you can hear her voice breaking. “There is a lot of stigma with Alzheimer’s, and I am hopeful this will be a resource and resource center for as much support as you need. I think Dot would be embarrassed, but giving back to your community has been what she and John’s entire life was about. But she would be grateful because others can benefit from this.”
John Wyatt died at age 73 on Jan. 29, 2004.
Charlene Wyatt says it is all the more gratifying that Ann and Tony Cimaglia share the honor of the institute’s name.
“I’m very close to Tony Cimaglia,” she says. “I sat beside him many times on the Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation board, when he would have so much knowledge.”
And vision for what health care should and could mean for this community.
‘Promise for the future’
At the urging of John Carlisle, the late medical center administrator, Cimaglia joined with Dr. Harold Godwin, Joe Buie and Leonard Hedgepeth in 1995 to begin the Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation, the philanthropic arm in support of the medical center.
“In the early years our major role was to have all the Friends of the Hospital groups join the foundation, which was more difficult to accomplish than we ever realized, but finally successful,” Cimaglia, 83, says. “Our first major accomplishment, of which we’re all very proud, was the building of the Diabetes Center in the Medical Arts Building in downtown Fayetteville.”
Tony Cimaglia co-chaired with Virginia Thompson Oliver the "Caring for the Future" fundraising campaign that raised $7.85 million in financial support of the Center for Medical Education & Neuroscience Institute.
“Ann and I both see this very impressive Center for Medical Education and the Neuroscience Institute as a ‘promise for the future,’ aspiring for the best health care available locally through research, teaching and education,” says Tony Cimaglia, who struggles with Parkinson’s disease. “I continue to be extremely impressed with the progress of Cape Fear Valley Medical Center under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Mike Nagowski and the accomplishments made under his tenure.”
“Both the Cimaglia and Wyatt families have been strong advocates for Cape Fear Valley Health for many years,” says Sabrina Brooks, vice president of the Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation. “Tony Cimaglia first served on the board of trustees before being charged with the mission of starting the Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation over 25 years ago. Since that time, he has generously supported Cape Fear Valley Health by providing philanthropic support for our mission through the foundation.”
As have, she says, Jay and Charlene Wyatt.
“Jay and Charlene have also advocated for Cape Fear Valley Health for many years, both in their support of the health care provided to the community, as well as through their generosity. Charlene also serves on the foundation board of directors. Because of both families’ involvement and financial support, the Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation continues to be able to have a transformational impact on the health and wellness of our community. This is most evident in their commitment to those in our community who experience neurological health issues. The gift to name the Neuroscience Institute for the Cimaglias and Dorothy Bankhead Wyatt, Jay's mother, represents their dedication to doing all they can to support the exceptional health care our community needs and deserves.”
The financial support, Brooks says, also will assist in the Parkinson's Patient Support Program in addition to other neurological disorders.
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‘Something good is happening’
No hospital is perfect.
No hospital ever will be.
A life born, and a neonatal unit can be a joyous place, with a mother waiting to hold a newborn in her arms. A loved one lost, and a hospital room can be a place of tears and sorrow, and where the despair has given way to anxious hours by a bedside.
But …
There now are 274 residents in the health system and 130 medical students, according to the health system, with 300 positions approved in specialty fields to include emergency medicine, internal medicine, cardiology, pulmonology, orthopedics, general surgery, OB/GYN, surgery, psychiatry, pharmacy, gastroenterology, geriatrics, ophthalmology, infectious disease, neurology, oral maxillofacial, otolaryngology and physical medicine rehabilitation.
“As you drive by here on Owen Drive,” says Dr. Charles Haworth, director of neurosurgery for the Ann and Tony Cimaglia and Dorothy Bankhead Wyatt Neuroscience Institute, “you will know something good is happening.”
Epilogue
A shining moment on June 12, 1956, when Ava Ray Owen Monroe, a 22-year-old floral designer, became the first patient admitted at 7:35 a.m. at Cape Fear Valley Hospital along Owen Drive.
Another shining moment on Jan. 13 when the Center for Medical Education & the Neuroscience Institute became a home for 300 medical residents out of Campbell University’s Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine, and surely with E.N. Brower, Bernard Stein, T.M. Hunter, L.C. Thornton and Robert L. Moser looking down on what once was a fledgling health system 67 years ago and what today it has become.
“When God and a community come together, great things happen,” Dr. Don Maharty would say. “Today is a good day to rejoice. Great things have been done, and greater things will be done in this city.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
