Portland observer., June 17, 1987, Page 3, Image 3

J upp 17, 1987, Portland Observer, Page 3
gCelia Bast Young —Her Vision Pays Off
8
Whenever a question comes up about the history of Holladay Park Medi­
a l Center, someone is bound to say, "Just ask Celia." That’s because
3 $ e,ia Bast Young, founding member of the Holladay Park Medical Center
"fo u n d a tio n Board of Trustees, has been an integral part of the hospital’s
history since the early 1930s.
Trying to sum up Mrs. Young's many contributions to Holladay Park
Medical Center and the City of Portland is no small task. But Dorothea
Lensch, treasurer of the Medical Center Foundation Board, put it very well:
"She is one of Portland's outstanding women, a pioneer in the field of hos­
pital administration. She is a woman who cares a great deal . . . about
medicine, the arts, and about people."
When Holladay Park Hospital (then called Hahnemann Hospital) opened
its doors to Portlanders on May 15, 1934, Celia Bast had already been on
the job for a year. By the time she retired in 1953, she and the Board of
Trustees had established a clear direction for the hospital —a proud tradition
of quality patient care, openness to medical innovation, and responsiveness
to community needs —a tradition that continues to guide the hospital to this
day.
As the hospital's first administrator, Celia Bast had the task of completely
furnishing the hospital from kitchen to surgery on a budget of $25,(XX).
"Everthing was the finest we could buy—and, because of the depression,
everything was cheap. They were practically giving things away." She
remembers purchasing Simmons mattresses, all-wool Pendleton blankets
and Gorham silver for food service. She also recalls insisting that such
utensils as bedpans and pitchers be made of stainless steel rather than
enamelware, which was much less expensive but tended to chip easily.
She laughingly recalls being teased about wanting "silver bedpans.”
She also interviewed all the nursing applicants for the refurbished hos­
pital, insisting that only registered nurses be hired. As was the custom
then, the nurses lived at the hospital and were paid $65.00 per month, plus
room and board.
Mrs. Young says it was not at all unusual for a woman to be an admini­
strator of a hospital at that time. In fact, because Oregon law then required
that hospital administrators be registered nurses, all hospital administrators
in the city were women.
Celia Bast grew up in Everett, Washington. She had planned to study
pharmacy at the University of Washington, but when World War I inter­
vened, she decided she could better serve her country by becoming a
nurse. She graduated from the Good Samaritan School of Nursing in Port­
land in 1920.
But she never practiced nursing after graduation —"I just couldn't do
it," she says. She credits Emily Loveridge, administrator of Good Samari­
tan when she was a nursing student, with recognizing that her talents lay
elsewhere. Miss Loveridge gave certain students special responsibilities
in the hospital and Celia Bast was one of those chosen. When she gradu­
ated, Miss Loveridge hired her as night superintendent of the hospital, a
post she held for six years.
She was then offered an administrative position at the Portland Open
Air Sanatorium, where tuberculosis patients were treated. After four years
she had to resign this position when she developed lung problems herself.
She did not work for about a year while she recovered her health.
While she was recuperating. Dr. John Besson, the secretary to the Board
of Trustees of Hahnemann Hospital, came to her and asked her to look over
the plans for completing the hospital. "I understood plans very well be­
cause my father was a building contractor —he would bring blueprints
home and he taught me how to read them ." After looking over the hospital
blueprints, she told Dr. Besson that she felt the arrangement of the sur­
gery was a mistake. Later, Dr. Besson told her that both he and the archi­
tect agreed, and so the plans were changed.
It was after this that Celia Bast was offered the position as administrator
of the new hospital. She said she turned it down at first because she felt it
was too much responsibility, but Dr. Besson insisted the board wanted her
for the job. She finally acquiesced and was hired for $125 a month.
Celia Bast continued as administrator of Holladay Park Hospital until
1953, when she resigned after 20 years of service. She explains that in 1952
money was raised for the new building —"I felt a new building should have
a new administrator." But the hospital she helped to build will always have
a special place in her heart and she has fond memories of its many accom­
plishments.
In 1982, Celia Bast Young was instrumental in organizing Holladay Park
Diabetes Classes Slated
Left to Right: Dr. M a rg it A. Jay, Celia Bast Young.
Medical Center's Foundation and served as the first President of the Board
of Trustees. She continues to serve Holladay Park Medical Center today as
a member of the Board of Trustees and as Chairperson of the Donor Re
cognition Committee of the Foundation Board.
F _.
Get the car loan
you deserve.
A series of Diabetes Education
classes is planned Monday through
Thursday, June 22-25, at Meridian
Park Hospital, Tualatin.
Scheduled from 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.
in the hospital cafeteria conference
room, the series is designed to
teach diabetics the skills necessary
to manage their illness, to help
adapt these management skills into
already-existing lifestyles, and to
help set realistic goals for diabetes
control.
Cost is $110 per client, or $27.50
per session, and with physician re­
ferral, is covered by Medicare and
rtfbst major insurance carriers. Fa­
mily members are welcome to at­
tend at no additional charge.
This session is taught by hospital
Diabetes Educator Cindi Balias,
R.N., Dietitian Martha Hirsch, R.D.,
Physical Therapist Pat Quintana,
R.P.T., and Staff Physicians Ken­
neth Martin, M.D. and Donald
Bouma, M.D.
I
These children are missing. They
suddenly disappeared, just as more
than 150,000 other children do
each year. Some of these children
are runaways. Others have been
kidnapped by a parent Many have
been stolen to be abused, sold into
prostitution, murdered It could
happen to your child Take steps
now to ensure your child’s safety.
One place to find out more is at
your neighborhood pharmacy.
Till now, posters of missing chil­
dren such as the one above have
been hit or miss. They are plastered
in bus stops hy anguished parents
or seen briefly on television ..not
given enough coverage or time for
identification. Now such posters
are displayed regularly at neigh­
borhood pharmacies across the na­
tion, places where almost everyone
goes frequently. It s part of the
Child Care program, created by the
Society For Young Victims and
sponsored by the Parke-Davis Divi­
sion of Warner-Lambert Company.
Pharmacies participating in the
program display a Child Care bul­
letin board with photos and de­
scriptions of missing children, reg­
ularly up-dated. A toll-free hot-line
number will be displayed that you
cafi call if you think you recognize
a child Also featured are free book­
lets, with tips for parents and
youngsters that can help prevent a
kidnapping or child abuse.
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So you deserve to get the car or truck you want.
On your terms.
Come to First Interstate Bank of Oregon, where
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Arrange for low monthly payments over a long
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on late-model used cars. We ll explain the options.
Then you decide.
Apply for your loan at any First Interstate office.
Or call the loan hotline weekdays 10 a m. to 7 p.m.,
weekends from noon to 5 p m. In Portland, call
225-4000 Outside Portland, call 1-800-228-0454
Apply now. And get the auto loan you deserve.
First
Interstate
Bank
Serving Oregon fo r
■**
.
120 years.