THE WAUPACA COUNTY POST

December 2, 1993

 

WHEN THEN WAS NOW

By Wayne A. Guyant

 

            A dream is all a group of Waupaca citizens had when they got together on the night of Dec. 2, 1947, to map out preliminary goals for the erection of a much-needed hospital. Prior to that time, there were only two large homes operated by Waupaca doctors that were the only hospital facilities available.

            Hard work and many disappointing circumstances followed the first hospital board, and in April 1953, at a special meeting, they decided to disband.

            Seeking a new approach, a new board of directors was elected in June of that same year, with Howard Manney as president, Erik Lindskoog, vice president; Robert Richards, secretary; Irvin Koren, treasurer; and Steve Tedesko, assistant treasurer.

            It became urgent in August of 1953, when the local doctors informed the board that the state had informed them that the small hospitals in Waupaca would be closed within a year if not brought up to standards.  Now that the situation became critical, a fund-raising consultant was hired on Sept. 4, 1953.

            The problem for a site was solved when, on November 26, 1953, two Waupaca citizens, Erving Kissinger and Dr. John Pelton, donated enough land on the bank of the Crystal River for a new hospital.  Not only that, but they donated enough land for future expansions.

            Citizens of the community and surrounding areas opened up their hearts and their pocketbooks and, along with a government grant, work was ready to begin on the new hospital that had a price tag of $422,775.

            Ground-breaking ceremonies took place on June 17, 1954, and the very next day the actual construction on the 50-bed hospital was begun.  A little over a year later the Riverside Memorial Hospital opened up its doors to the first patient on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 1955, and was in full swing by the end of the week.

            This first new patient also gave birth to the first baby to come into the world at the Riverside Memorial Hospital.  Dr. Marshall O. Boudry delivered a 6-pound, 5-ounce boy, Scott Norman Sannes, son of Mrs. Norman Sannes of Route 1, Scandinavia, at 4:50 p.m., Tuesday, September 6, 1955.

            By an odd coincidence, Gordon Sannes, a brother of Norman Sannes, and also of Route 1, Scandinavia, became a father on Sept. 3, 1955, at the old Waupaca Hospital, Inc.

            Mrs. Byron Everts of Waupaca was the first actual patient to enter the new hospital, being transferred from the Mirror Lake Hospital that Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 6.

            All of the seven patients of the Mirror Lake Hospital were transferred to the new hospital on Sept. 6 by Bammel’s and Holly’s ambulances.  Several patients from the Waupaca Hospital, Inc., were transferred the next day.

            The present-day Riverside Medical Center (RMC) is the culmination of that dream for an new hospital 46 years ago on December 2, 1947.