The Hastings Banner — Thursday, April 1, 2021 — Page 7Social News
County was ‘training ground’
for health care students
Nearly 20 years after Barry County served
as the pilot program to test preventative
health theories as part of the Michigan
Community Health Program, people from
throughout the world were still traveling here
to learn more.
A clipping, possibly from the Grand
Rapids Press in November 1950, featured an
article headlined “Barry trains U students;
public health experts get job experience.”
“Barry County’s health department, which
since Jan. 1, 1949, has been functioning under
a health center committee, has more than just
routine functions of a public health unit.
“It also serves as a ‘training ground’ for
graduate students from the University of
Michigan’s school of public health and for
field training for other U of M students
studying to enter the public health field.
“A group of 14 students, representing
India, Alaska, and eight states [Alaska not
having gained statehood yet], spent last week
in Barry County seeing how a county health
department actually is operated.
List professions
“The ‘campus health unit’ included
physicians, dentists, engineers, sanitarians, a
nutritionist, nurses and health educators who
make regular inspections, home visits and
observe other public health functions to see
for themselves how textbook language is
applied on the job.
“Other university campus health units are
assigned to Ottawa, Branch-Hillsdale,
Kalamazoo, Calhoun and Macomb counties.
“Barry taxpayers do not stand expense of
this program. Their health department budget
benefits by about $9,500 a year through
participation in the program, according to Dr.
Vergil Slee, director of the department and of
Pennock Hospital.
“Federal and state money totaling about
$8,000, plus $1,500 from the W.K. Kellogg
Foundation, finances the work and also makes
it possible for Barry County to have a more
adequate public health staff than might
otherwise be possible, Dr. Slee reported.
Inspected city
“While in Hastings, public health students
made engineering field trips, inspected
restaurants and resorts, visited the E.W. Bliss
plant in company with an industrial hygiene
engineer from the state health department,
and took part in many conferences.
“One of their most interesting conferences
was ... when nine laymen were invited by Dr.
Slee for a panel discussion with students.
Members of the panel included Supervisor
J.J. Mead, a member of the health committee
of the county board; Richard Groos, chairman
of the health center committee; Mrs. Harold
[Gladys] Slocum, representing the FarmBureau; Rev. Leason Sharpe, pastor of First
Presbyterian Church and county Red Cross
chairman; Dr. Wilbur Birk; Lawrence
Steenwyck, Freeport superintendent of
schools; Lottie Teusink, superintendent of
nurses at Pennock Hospital; Mrs. Harold
[Louise] Newton, general chairman of the 40
Pennock Hospital guilds; and George B.
[“Buzz”] Youngs, news editor of the Hastings
Banner.
“Particularly interesting to the students
was Barry County’s health center program,which is attempting to set up a more
coordinated program between preventive and
curative medicine. The center, created by
agreement between the Pennock Hospital
Board of Trustees and the Barry County
Board of Supervisors, is working for a
unification of medical efforts in the county.
Dr. Slee reported that while results to date are
far from tangible, greater results should be
shown when the health department moves
into quarters at the hospital when the new
$470,000 addition is completed.”Health department was
model for rest of state
Part VII
The following is one of a series of articles
written in 1981 by Barry County Judge
Richard Loughrin to mark the 50th anniversary
of the local health department, which had
noteworthy beginnings. Barry was selected in
1931 to be the model county in which to test
health care education. Loughrin at the time
served as president of the Barry County
Historical Society. This article is from the
Dec. 1, 1981, Banner.
County was part of ‘Laboratory
for the World’Barry and the six other counties of the
Michigan Community Health Project in the
1930s became a “laboratory for the world” to
observe a series of major demonstrations in
stimulating local community leaders to
improve the quality of life for rural Americans,
Andrew Pattullo, vice president of the W.K.
Kellogg Foundation, told [Barry County]
Historical Society members at their November
meeting.
The MCHP project, using the full resources
of the foundation in applying current
knowledge under staff supervision, attracted
thousands of observers from the United States
and countries around the world who stayed
for periods of short and long duration. Just
recently, Pattullo said, he met a physician in a
foreign country who had spent time with the
project in Van Buren County.
Pattullo, who described himself as the
remaining link on the foundation staff to the
MCHP era, joined the foundation in 1943,
when it was disengaging itself from a direct
relationship with the project. He became well
acquainted with Will Keith Kellogg and
gained insights into the latter’s remarkable
success.
W.K. Kellogg was a complex individual,
shy and retiring, aloof in many ways, but
above all, he was an astute businessman. For
25 years, he was business manager of the
Battle Creek Sanitarium, one of the world’s
greatest institutions of its kind and of
international reputation. The discovery of
corn flakes as an appetizing food came about
in a search for a health food to be used as a
protein meat substitute. Only in later years
was it marketed as a breakfast cereal.
Kellogg’s company survived the intense
competition of the 50 or 60 cereal companies
in Battle Creek through his tremendous sense
of marketing. In advertising, he was
flamboyant for the times, e.g., “Sweetheart of
the Corn,” and used the first electric sign in
Times Square, New York City.
As Kellogg’s business prospered, he
sought in the 1920s to become a benefactor of
children to a fellowship foundation. After
attending the 1930 White House Conference
on Children, Kellogg became more deliberate
in his desire to help children and their health.
He realized he had to help a child’s community
first in order to help the child. Thus, he
established the W.K. Kellogg Child Welfare
Foundation. Although the words “Child
Welfare” were soon dropped from the name,
the emphasis had continued.
With his typical caution, Kellogg drew
advice and counsel for the foundation from a
board of confidantes, and they developed the
initial strategy of “beginning in our own
backyard” to test some thoughts on developing
a model rural county, with primary emphasis
on health and education. The MCHP project
resulted.
At times, the MCHP project resembled a
“three-ring circus,” Pattullo said, with action
in three areas going on simultaneously in each
county: Establishing a county health
department, establishing or modernizing a
hospital in each county, and third, modernizing
the schools into consolidated districts with
adequate physical resources. Meanwhile, a
principal purpose of the project, strengthening
local community leadership, enabled many
leaders to receive further education at major
universities.
Although the foundation withdrew its
director participation by 1945, the MCHPGraduate students at the school of public health of the University of Michigan watch
a demonstration by Nelson Lieffers, Pennock Hospital X-ray technician, showing how
the county annually examines an average of 950 persons for traces of tuberculosis.
Pictured (from left) are Dr. David Witters, of Pierre, S.D., dentist; nurse Hazel Fowler,
Murfreesboro, Tenn.; nutritionist Marjorie Cantoni, West Newton, Mass.; nurse Joan
Gannon, Osseo, Minn.; Dr. N.R. Frankovelgia, Chicago; health educator Howard
Hilton, Pontotoc, Miss.; engineer William Porter, Juneau, Alaska; sanitarian Donald
Price, Walterboro, S.C.; and Dr. Vergil Slee, Barry County Health Department director.“Local contractors and craftsmen are educated by cooperating in drawing specifications and maintaining standards in construc-
tion,” reads a notation with this photo in “The First Eleven Years,” a 1941 publication on the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. A shorter
summary on the Barry County Health Department was printed that same year. In the 1930s and 1940s, farm homes and other
buildings were being remodeled to provide inside frost-proof toilets and level floors for movable furniture. Inexpensive pressure
water systems were added to provide clean running water. (W.K. Kellogg Foundation)Maurice C. Kaser, 28, (right), a graduate of Kalamazoo College and the University
of Michigan, is succeeding David McMullen (left) as Barry County’s sanitary engineer.
He was photographed Monday being introduced by McMullen to Richard Nixon, oper-
ator of Hastings’ sewage disposal plant. – Aug. 1, 1957 Banner. [After two years,
Kaser (1929-2003) left the job to become an Episcopal priest, and later served a par-
ish in Ohio. According to his obituary, he took particular pleasure, when preaching in
Ohio, in wearing U-M suspenders under his vestments and at times weaving oblique
references to a Big Blue victory into his sermons.]
project left a legacy with the foundation from
the exciting years of 1931 to 1945, Pattullo
said.
Dr. Emory Morris, dentist of Nashville
and Battle Creek, was remembered by
Pattullo, who said Dr. Morris became a part-
time consultant to the foundation in 1933
when he was practicing dentistry in Battle
Creek. The following year, Dr. Morris became
the foundation’s full-time director of the
division and, ultimately, general director and
treasurer of the foundation.Other members of the foundation who
were guests of the historical society included
Dr. Robert D. Sparks, director of the medical
division, Robert Hencey, director of
communications, Dr. William J. Grove,
recently appointed program director in health,
and Ms. Laura Davis, administrative assistant.
Dr. John Duffy, medical historian speaker at
the next day’s luncheon, also was a guest,
brought in from the University of Maryland
through the courtesy of the foundation.
Members of the historical society attendedthe luncheon at the Middleville Inn the
following day and greeted longtime
acquaintances and participants of the MCHP
project. Among them were former county
health department directors Dr. J.K. Altland
and Dr. Vergil N. Slee and his wife; Esther
Kreider, Mildred Doyle, Marc Squier, Ethel
Barber, Lyman and Gertrude Chamberlain,
Mrs. Jean M. Lund of Middleville, widow of
the late Dr. Lund, and Richard Cook, whose
late wife was Rose DeFoe Dook.157479
NOTICE TO BIDDERSBARRY COUNTY ROAD COMMISSION
Sealed proposals will be received at the office of the Barry County Road Commission,
1725 West M-43 Highway, P.O. Box 158, Hastings, MI 49058, until 10:30 A.M. Monday,
April 5, 2021 for the sale of the following items.Specifications and additional information may be obtained at the Road Commission
Office at the above address or at our web site at http://www.barrycrc.org.(1) 2019 Caterpillar Excavator, Model 308, Approx. 850 hours
Minimum Bid $110,(2) 2019 Bobcat Skidsteer, Model T870, Approx. 550 hours
Minimum Bid $63,
The Board reserves the right to reject any or all proposals or to waive irregularities in
the best interest of the Commission.BOARD OF COUNTY ROAD COMMISSIONERS
OF THE COUNTY OF BARRY
Frank M. Fiala Chairman
David D. Solmes Member
D. David Dykstra MemberCall 269-945-
for Hastings
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