Hospital administrator has led
varied and interesting life
VOL. 115
NO. 5_______ 6 Pages Wednesday, January 31, 1996,_______ Morrow County Heppner, Oregon
World's largest combine at MCGG appreciation day
Big com bine to be on display at M C G G appreciation day
preciation day, from 7 a.m.-
noon.
"This is no ordinary com­
bine," according to Larry Mills,
MCGG general manager. The
inflatable combine is 60 feet
long, 28 feet tall, and has a 45
foot grain header. The grain
tank would hold 1600 bushels.
The world's largest display
combine, the CASE IH 2188 in­
flatable AXIAL-FLOW com­
bine, will be at Morrow Coun­
ty Grain Growers (MCGG) in
Lexington on Saturday, Feb.
10, during their customer ap-
The replica serves as a goodwill
ambassador for Case IH dealers
and is scaled at twice the size
of a standard series combine.
MCGG invites everyone to
view the monster combine,
which is the first appearance in
Oregon. MCGG is located at
350 Main Street.
Brrr...it's cold; winter is here
W inter has hit Morrow
County with a vengeance.
During the past week, Hepp­
ner has been on the receiving
end of around six inches of
snow and a blast of an arctic
cold front.
Heppner City foreman Dave
Winters reported a high of 18
degrees Monday, January 29,
with a low of minus eight. The
Bank of Eastern Oregon's ther­
mometer reported a high of
around 13 degrees Tuesday,
Two local men injured in rollover
Two men were injured in a
one-vehicle rollover accident
January 25 around 5:40 p.m.
across from the Kinzua
Resources mill near Heppner.
According to Oregon State
Police Senior Trooper Tim
Cundell, Kevin Lee Brewer, 26,
Lexington, was driving a 1989
Ford Bronco, when he dropped
a cigarette lighter. As Brewer
bent down to pick up the
lighter, he lost control of the
vehicle. When the vehicle roll­
ed over, both Brewer and his
passenger, Anthony Scott
Wichlan, lone, were ejected.
Neither was wearing a seat
belt, said Cundell.
Brewer suffered internal in­
juries and was transported to
Good Shepherd Hospital in
Hermiston by ambulance. Ac­
cording to Cundell, Wichlan
suffered a possible broken back
and was airlifted to St. Charles
Medical Center in Bend.
M o rro w C o u n ty E le c tio n R e s u lts
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 1996
Rep. Gordon Smith vs Dem. Ron Wyden
Smith Wyden
Boardman
lone
Irrigon
Lexington
Heppner/Hardman
Totals
381
225
242
62
397
306
208
48
595
293
1823
934
•*
It’s cold
dropping to seven degrees
around 3 p.m. and down to
four degrees only a few
minutes later.
Monday's precipitation was
.03 of an inch, amounting to
about an inch of accumulated
snow with 2 V 2 inches still on
the ground.
Su nday's high was 40
degrees with a low of 15 and
.05 inches of precipitation in the
form of V 2 inch of new snow
and 2 V 2 inches accumulated.
Saturday's high was 36, with
a low of 23 and .24 inches of
precipitation ( 2 V 2 inches of
snow). Friday's high was 41,
with a low of 18 and .25 inches
of precipitation (three inches of
snow).
By April Hilton-Sykes
Pioneer Memorial Hospital
administrator and Morrow
County Health District CEO
Kevin Erich looks like your
typical mild-mannered busi­
nessman, probably raised in
Iowa, Nebraska, some Mid­
western town. Actually, Erich
grew up back East, way
back...as in Far East.
The son of a physician and
missionary, Erich spent his
youth in Korea.
Erich was born in 1958 at
Ford Ord, CA, to Louis and
Lillian Erich. His father was a
captain in the U.S. Army, as
well as being a doctor. His
mother, Lillian had a teaching
degree, majoring in religion
and minoring in secondary
education.
Active in the Seventh-day
Adventist Church, the Erich
family had a long history of
philanthropy, sometimes link­
ed with danger, but always
with an abiding faith. His
grandfather, who was a mis­
sionary in China, was once cap­
tured as a spy and condemned
to death. On the eve of his ex­
ecution, the Nationalist armies
recaptured the area and he
went free. Erich's father heard
about the incident over the
radio.
Erich's father was born in
Shanghai. When he was
around 11 years old, a war
broke out between the Na­
tionalists and the Japanese. He,
his mother, older brother and
younger sister were asked to
come out of central China and
asked God's guidance for their
travels. They had planned to
take the train, but as they ap­
proached the station, the train
pulled out. The train was full
and no other trains were
scheduled to leave that day.
With no other option, they
were able to get tickets for the
next day. The next day they
discovered that the train they
were scheduled to take had
been completely destroyed by
the Japanese. They had to roll
the train, still burning, off the
tracks so they could proceed.
Once on the train, the family
was faced with an incredible
dilemma. The train had just
passed a bridge, which was a
common target for bombings,
and there was an air raid. On
one side of the train was a lake
and the other a swamp, so they
couldn't escape, but they
couldn't go back to the bridge
either. They decided to stay
where they were, circled by 27
Japanese bombers. Amazingly,
the bombers finally left without
destroying the train.
" I have a big trust in G od,"
said Erich, "some based on my
experience and some on my
family's."
When Erich was one year
old, his family went to Korea to
work as missionaries, living in
the southern port town of
Pusan. When he was seven
they moved back to the States
so his father, then a general
practitioner, could take his
residency in internal medicine.
Erich spoke both English and
Korean, but up until returning
to the U .S., 'thought' in
Korean. He spoke Korean to
his friends and he and his
brothers often translated for
their parents. The Erich family
then went back to Korea for
four years. From 1970 to 1973
they returned to the U.S. while
his father finished a residency
in obstetrics/gynecology.
They returned to the Far
East, this time to Singapore for
Erich's high school years, from
1973 to 1977. He graduated
from the Far Eastern Academy,
a Seventh-day Adventist school
which had students attending
from all over the world.
Erich's high school campouts
were a little more exotic than
most-to the jungles of Malay­
sia, complete with the howling
of baboons. During one camp-
out in the jungle with his
friends, Erich almost fell over
a trip wire. He followed the
wire and came face to face with
a guerrilla fighter who had a
gun pointed at him. Erich had
entered the perimeter of the
guerrilla camp. In visiting with
the soldiers, they told him that
they believed that charms pro­
tected their opponents from
death. Erich said that there
were still many skirmishes in
the area following the Vietnam
War and the communists used
the soldiers' superstitions to
propagate fear.
During Erich's senior year he
traveled to Sarawak with his
parents and a student mis­
sionary who was teaching at his
high school. Sarawak, a state of
Malaysia, is in northwest Bor­
neo. Erich's father held a
medical clinic there for around
a week, offering one of the few
opportunities for the people
there to get medical care. The
Erich family stayed in a long-
house, traveled by dugout
canoe and walked through
swamps with the aide of a
guide. Crossing the swamps
was difficult because only the
guide knew exactly where to
cross, stepping on logs invisi­
ble under the water. "W e had
to follow him step by step,"
said Erich. While in Sarawak
they traveled to a mountainous
village and were the first white
people the villagers had seen.
The people were no longer can­
nibals, but the vestiges of the
practice were still apparent-the
skulls of earlier victims.
Besides Korea, Singapore
and Sarawak, Erich has travel­
ed to Japan, Hong Kong, Falk­
land, Australia, New Guinea
and Vietnam.
Erich has a lot of respect for
his father, who was the only
U.S. physician to pass medical
boards in Korean. The Korean
boards were especially difficult,
because knowledge of three
languages was required on the
exam. If there was no Korean
word for a particular item or
procedure, a Chinese word was
used. And if there was no
Chinese word, they used
English. Erich said that because
of the primitive conditions and
isolation, his father was some­
times the only hope the people
had. He added that the elder
Erich sometimes studied a pro­
cedure the night before surgery
the next morning. His father,
who is still practicing medicine,
and mother now live in Sonora,
California, north of Yosemite.
Kevin Erich
degree in business.
Motivated by the desire to
obtain his master's degree and
to find someone who shared
his beliefs, Erich enrolled at a
Seventh-day Adventist college,
Andrews Unviersity at Berrien
Springs, Michigan. He achiev­
ed both. On the morning of
August 5, 1984, he received a
master's degree in business ad­
ministration. In the evening he
married his wife, Sharia.
Sharia, who grew up in Michi­
gan, was born in Walla Walla
and has relatives living in the
Bend area. When the couple
met, her father was the chair­
man of the physics department
at Andrews. Her mother, who
is from the Centralia area, has
a master's degree in piano
performance.
After their marriage, the cou­
ple moved to Illinois where he
was employed at the Broad­
view Academy and she attend­
ed school at North Illinois
University at DeKalb. She was
then accepted into the physical
therapy program at the Univer­
sity of Health Sciences Medical
School, locaed near the Wis-
consin-Illinois border. Right
before she finished school, their
first child, Robbie, was born on
March 15, 1988.
In 1986, Erich began working
for an Adventist chain of nurs­
ing homes. He was assistant
administrator for a 200 bed
facility, administrator for a
50-bed facility and then ad­
ministrator for an 80-bed facili­
ty. On April 18, 1990 their se­
cond son, Stephen, was born.
Wanting to broaden his base
of experience in managing an
acute care facility, and get away
from the city, he accepted the
position as administrator of
Pioneer Memorial Hospital
(PMH), which now includes
administration of Morrow
County
Health
District
(MCHD). The Erichs arrived in
Heppner during St. Patrick's
weekend of 1992. Sharia, 31,
began working as the physical
therapist at PMH the summer
of that year. In addition to her
Erich has an older brother, job, caring for their two child­
Jonathan, who is a physician in ren, and staying active in their
Vancouver, WA, and a young­ church, Sharia is an accom­
er brother, Timothy, a high plished musician and plays in
school history, government the East Oregon Symphony.
It's been fantastic," said
and economics teacher in Car­
Erich,
37, said of their move to
michael, CA. Timothy is runn­
Morrow
County. "It's been a
ing for the U.S. Congress on
trem
endous
learning ex­
the Reform Party (Ross Perot's
perience.
We
also
like the idea
party in California).
of a small town. We've enjoyed
After high school, Erich living here. We've had the op­
enrolled at Pacific Union Col­ portunity to get involved in so
lege in Northern California, many things."
then vacillating between stu­
Erich says that as adminis­
dies in business and pre-med. trator of MCHD, he is "trying
After his sophomore year, he to do what's best for the institu­
took a year off to take a posi­ tion and for the county." Since
tion in Indiana as assistant he began as administrator, the
boys' dean at an Adventist health district has added den­
academy for high school boys. tal offices in both Boardman
There Erich, who was on a and Heppner, and a third
gymnastics team in high school physician in Heppner. The
and college, taught gymnastics. district has proposed a bond
While he was paid only $60 a issue which would fund con­
month, he found the job "real­ struction of an acute care facili­
ly rewarding". After his stint ty in Boardman and a clinic in
there, he returned to Pacific Irrigon.
Union to finish his bachelor's
15% off All Insulated
Coveralls in stock,
Thru Saturday February 3rd
Morrow County Grain Growers
Lexington 989-8221
1-800-452-7396