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| Former and current Children's Hospital staff members – including Gary Perkins, president and CEO (top left) and Kathy Dougherty (bottom right) pose in front of Swanson Hall. |
Kathy Dougherty moved slowly down the dim first-floor corridor of Swanson Hall, cane in one hand, peering into empty rooms. The medical transcriptionist, who began her career in the building in 1962 when it was Children's Memorial Hospital, who still works for Children's Hospital & Medical Center today, had come to say good-bye. "I was here a long time," she said. "I just like this building." Dougherty wasn't alone. Approximately 50 people – former and current Children's and UNMC staff members – turned out Friday afternoon for a tribute to Swanson Hall, which will be razed for construction of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center. Click here for more Swanson memories – or add your own in the comment section! UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., spoke, as did Gary Perkins, president and CEO of Children's Hospital & Medical Center. "Even though this building will soon be demolished, the legacy of the good done here will continue for future generations," Dr. Maurer said. "Most importantly, we will continue to do good work in this space, which will improve the lives of generations to come." Jan Wintle was confined to a Children's bed during a polio epidemic at age 9. She trained briefly in the building as a student nurse and started her nursing career there in 1977 before moving over to University Hospital. Her younger brother, Dave Miller, still remembers playing on the lawn in front of the building as a young boy – "Just over there," he said, pointing – and waving to his sister when she appeared at the window. "This building holds a lot of memories for me," said Wintle, whose daughter also spent time in the building following her premature birth. "It's a special building." There were lighthearted moments. Chancellor Maurer drew laughs by noting that the building, which opened in 1948, was built for $850,000 – about today's cost for two square feet of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center. And following remarks by Dr. Maurer and Perkins, former and current Children's employees gathered on the steps – flanked by the building's still-impressive white columns – for a group photo. "This tribute to Swanson Hall is somewhat bittersweet," Perkins acknowledged. "But we know that the heart of Children's is today and always has been in our people." And Dr. Maurer noted that the space – which provided UNMC with administrative offices, space for cutting-edge research and other uses – will continue to be used to help people. "And that," he said, "will improve the lives of citizens in Omaha, in the region and worldwide."