After decades of service, three of Columbus Regional Hospital’s longest-serving employees are still finding motivation in the work they do.
For Barb Harmon, 76, a patient meal expediter at Columbus Regional Hospital, working at the hospital feels like home. For Pam Richards, 72, a food service ambassador, it’s her desire to help people, and for Richard’s mother, Frances Underwood, 90, a food service aide, it’s her love for travel.
The women are among 43 current Columbus Regional Hospital employees who have worked for the hospital system for at least 40 years, said Kesley DeClue, CRH spokeswoman.
Harmon, the longest tenured hospital employee, has worked in food services at the hospital for just more than 59 years, but never planned on working there for that long.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
“My brother said I wouldn’t last a month,” Harmon said, smiling. “When I came home, I said, ‘I got a job,’ and he said, ‘Oh, you won’t last a month.’ And then a little bit later he said, ‘Oh, you won’t even last a week.’”
Nearly six decades later, she’s still there.
The world has changed
Harmon’s first day on the job at the hospital, which was called Bartholomew County Hospital at the time, was Sept. 15, 1960 — and the world has changed a lot since then.
There were no time cards at the hospital then, Harmon said. The hospital would not get its first computer for about another decade.
Then-Sen. John F. Kennedy, who had just made a campaign stop in Indianapolis, was about seven weeks away from being elected the 35th president of the United States, and a gallon of gas cost around 31 cents.
Harmon, a Columbus native, was born in the hospital in which she would eventually work for decades. She had quit Columbus High School at the age of 17 and was babysitting for her cousin and aunt, who worked at the hospital. Harmon said she later earned her GED from Columbus North High School in 1980.
“One day (my aunt) came and she said, ‘I’m tired of you working for nothing. I’m going to take you over to the hospital and you put your application in.’ So I put my application in,” Harmon said.
Two weeks later, Harmon was hired to work in the dish room for 70 cents per hour and was “scared to death” because it was her first job.
“I was very green, didn’t know anything,” Harmon said.
The food at the hospital in 1960 “was pretty good” but “I don’t think we were eating too healthy back then, except for the patients,” Harmon said.
Harmon has held a variety of jobs in food service at the hospital since then, including working on what she called the “tray line.”
The tray line is the process of loading the trays with food ordered by patients at the hospital. A group of employees load the tray and then place them on a cart that is then transported by other employees, who distribute the food to the patients. Harmon said she currently works on the tray line.
“I never dreamed that I would be working here that long,” Harmon said. “It was never a plan to work here that long. It just kind of happened.”
When asked what motivated her to continue working at the hospital for 59 years, Harmon, who gave no indication on when she might retire, said, “It’s all I know. It’s my home. A lot of good people have come through here.”
Mother-daughter duo
Richards’ and Underwood’s career at Columbus Regional Hospital started in June 1973 with a phone call.
Richards recalled how she and her mother, Underwood, got their feet in the door at the former Quinco Mental Health Center, which became affiliated with Bartholomew County Hospital in 1988.
“(Quinco) called my house. (My mother) had applied for a job over there, and my stepmother had applied for a job,” Richards said. “And they called for my stepmother, but she wasn’t there that day. So to the guy that called, I said, ‘My mother’s here looking for a job.’ He said, ‘Could I talk to her?’ So he talked to her, so she went in and he hired her.”
“After she went to work there, two days later they call me to come to work,” Richards added.
Richards, who also was born at Bartholomew County Hospital, was 26 years old at the time and Underwood was 44 years old.
The mother-daughter duo worked as cooks at Quinco Mental Health Center for 21 years before starting Columbus Regional Hospital, Richards said.
Richards and Underwood have held a variety of positions in food service at the hospital, including working on the tray line. Richards also has distributed food to patients. Currently, Richards takes food orders from hospital patients.
“We’ve done it all,” Underwood said.
Richards said her motivation to keep working at the hospital for decades was to help people and save money to travel.
“My goal is to make a difference in a life every day and that’s why I keep coming back here,” Richards said.
Underwood, who will turn 91 in April, said she loves to travel and has been on several cruises to Alaska and Hawaii, where she said she has been “a dozen times,” and has flown to Jamaica. Her goal is to return to Hawaii in April to climb Diamond Head National Monument, a 560-foot ascent, according to the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources.
“I’ve climbed Diamond Head every time I’ve been there,” Underwood said. “The last time that I went (in 2016), I climbed it and I was the oldest person to have ever climbed it.”
“I’m going to try again when I go,” Underwood added. “I’m going to do it if it takes me a week to do it.”
Underwood said she didn’t plan to work at the hospital for this long and recalled growing up in Lancaster, Kentucky, a town of around 3,800 people about 30 miles south of Lexington, and hearing the elderly talk about getting their pensions.
“The old men were all talking about the old ladies’ pension,” Underwood said. “That’s what they call Social Security now, probably because it’s a better name. But, anyhow, they were all talking about it and I thought, ‘Oh boy, I can’t wait until I retire to get that old ladies’ pension.’ And here I am (still working).”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Columbus Regional Hospital” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Visit www.crh.org/about-us/100-years-of-caring for more information about the history of Columbus Regional Hospital.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
