Saturday August 27, 2016
Schedule of Events 6:00 Hors d oeuvres and Beverages 7:00 Program Welcome Barbara Bauder Dr. Tom McAndrew Friends and Family Presentation of Award John Whitty and Dr. Tom McAndrew Tom and Joan Stamper 7:30 Dinner 8:30 Entertainment As Bay Area Hospital plans for the future, we reflect on how far we have come and acknowledge those who are an integral part of this worthwhile journey. The annual John Whitty Award for Excellence was established in 2009 to recognize individuals dedicated to improving the health and the well-being of our community. Many people can share a vision John Whitty Award winners roll up their sleeves and do the hard work to make the vision a reality.
Tom and Joan Stamper exemplify a commitment to longevity and volunteerism.
Whether it is for family, business, or community, Tom and Joan Stamper believe in working for the long haul. I like building things that will last, Tom explains. Any good structure needs a strong foundation, and the Stampers foundation is built on a marriage that is now well into its sixth decade the couple celebrated their fiftieth anniversary in 2010. They are truly a dynamic duo, and their individual strengths seem to complement each other perfectly. "Volunteers play an important part of the hospital dynamic, as they are the conduit between the business and the community it serves." Joan Stamper, philanthropist and Whitty Award winner Tom, a child of the Great Depression, was born in 1934 in Seattle, Washington, but his family was from Oregon s South Coast and returned home to Marshfield (now known as Coos Bay) soon after his birth. He is a man of few words. Joan, a few years younger and born in Eugene, is able to cover any pauses in the conversation with her more outgoing nature. Tom had gone to the University of Oregon to study business but was drafted in 1957. After serving two years in Germany, he returned to Eugene to finish some accounting coursework. It was there that he would meet his wife on a blind date.
Fortunately, she was temporarily blind, he deadpans, eliciting a laugh from his wife and a shake of her head. A year and a half later they were married and headed to Portland to start their new life together. Each found an adventurous kindred spirit in the other. They shared a love of travel and the outdoors, which they put to good use early in their marriage, when they left their jobs and headed to Europe. Traveling together on $10 per day, they roamed the continent for three months. Later they would add bicycling to their love of travel and spend 18 years taking bike trips around the United States and overseas. But before that could happen, Tom s roots would call both of them back to his boyhood home. In 1923 Tom s father, Jack Stamper, and his business partner, Jay Carter, opened J&J Tire Service on Curtis Street and Highway 101. The partnership didn t last long, but the business hung around. In the 1950s Chuck Stamper, Tom s older brother by eight years, was running the business. As the 1960s were dawning, Chuck was looking for some assistance from his younger brother with the business degree from the University of Oregon. At the same time, Tom and Joan were tiring of the Portland scene.
It didn t take him long to find out, as there were a lot of challenges. As the business struggled to stay afloat, Tom grew frustrated at trying to learn from other tire store owners. Many were willing to offer a cup of coffee and a tour but little else. He was about ready to call it quits when fate intervened. Tom says, My brother said, If you are not sure what you are going to do, why don t you come back down here. I really need to get the bookkeeping straightened. And that is what they did. But in July 1963, tragedy struck: Chuck was killed in a small-plane accident. My dad was semiretired and didn t want to get involved in the business anymore, Tom recalls. So the two of them sat down to go over the options, and Tom suddenly found himself the owner of a business. I foolishly thought, How hard could it be to run a tire store? he says. A supplier who traveled around Oregon had come by, Tom recalls. He knew I was on the fence and said, Before you give it up, I want you to go talk to a tire dealer over in Prineville, Oregon. He said, This guy likes to talk to people and explain what he does. So Tom got up early one morning for the long drive over to meet Les Schwab. Well, Tom says, Les introduced himself and then said, Come on, we ll get you a cup of coffee and we ll give you a tour. And I thought, Oh, my God, I drove clear over here for another one, Stamper laughs. But Les Schwab was different and had a much different business philosophy. The two men spoke for hours. He told me everything he was doing, why he was doing it, and how he was doing it, Tom says. I got kind of excited and was taking notes,
but at the same time I was thinking, That won t work. How can he possibly do that? But Tom decided to put the Les Schwab plan into action, and the tide started to turn. He would go from two stores to six, with locations in Reedsport, Coquille, Brookings, Crescent City, North Bend, and Coos Bay. The thing grew and it turned out to be fun, he says. With the business foundation stronger, Tom turned his attention to building people. In running his business, Tom was really good at seeing to it that his employees were rewarded for their efforts both individually and collectively, recalls Tom s longtime friend John Whitty. Tom instilled the kind of culture in his business that rewarded people for their efforts. That was also part of the Les Schwab way, and one of the things the two men had in common. Both believed that an investment in a person was more important than an investment in anything made of brick and mortar. I think that comes from growing up in small towns because you are involved everywhere in a small town, Tom says. I know that is what he did over in Prineville.
He was a pilot in World War II, Tom adds, and when he got out he wanted to do something on his own. He wanted to have his own business. His idea was that there were a lot of great younger people out there, with good attitudes and good work habits. He wanted a business where he could put some of those guys to work and see what they could do with it. Joan says that that is what she saw her husband doing here on the South Coast when he was working six-day weeks and long hours. He was investing in the youth of the area. After he met with Les Schwab, she recalls, I got the feeling he was spending his time educating his employees on how to be businessmen. There would be a monthly meeting where they would go over the profit-and-loss and how to do the advertising. A lot of them started at 18 pushing a broom and 20 years later became managers of one of the new stores. This was Tom s focus. He shared that focus outside his own business, too. Tom was often a guest lecturer at SWOCC (Southwestern Oregon Community College) and at a high school Business Week summer Les Schwab and Tom
camp. His main message was usually the same: The customer is where it starts, and service has to come from the employees. It s the same no matter what kind of business it is. While Tom was providing business opportunities, Joan seemed to be always on the move volunteering, and she became an original member of the Bay Area Hospital Ladies Auxiliary. John Whitty and Tom Stamper had been friends since high school, and then, in the late 1960s, their wives were playing bridge together. It didn t take long to connect the dots. When they started working toward building this new hospital, Joan recalls, the wives of the early board members were interested in forming a new Auxiliary. Teri Whitty was in my bridge club, so she recruited us all. John Whitty smiles at the Stampers quiet humility. He has seen it firsthand for many years. They are just really good people who go out of their way, in a very quiet way, to help this area and its institutions prosper, he says. They have been very generous to the community in many ways. And it is also time that we recognized the Auxiliary, and Joan is an ideal candidate to be recognized. Officially registered as a charter member of the Ladies Auxiliary, Joan says she was not one of the hardcore charter members. But as the hospital celebrates its forty-second year, there are not many charter members who can claim to have volunteered for each of those 42 years. I first interviewed to work in the Gift Shop, Joan says. I worked one time and went back to the coordinator and said, It s too boring.
I have to work out at the information desk. So I went to work on Thursday mornings at the information desk, and I still do that today. Joan has since served as Auxiliary president and as in-service chair, a post that handles the orientation of new members. In some of her spare time, the 50-year member of P.E.O. a sisterhood dedicated to the education of women was even able to serve on the hospital s Budget Committee for a while. And, she says, she doesn t regret a second spent volunteering: I learn something Volunteer Joan delivers photos to mom and baby. new every time I come to the hospital. I get more out of it than I ever put into it. Both Stampers feel that volunteers help bring the community and the hospital closer and would like to see more people catch the volunteer spirit. Here, for many years, we felt that we were the sounding board for the public, Joan says. While the volunteering and mentoring continued after retirement, a new way to help the community presented itself when Tom decided to retire in 1999. The Stampers turned their attention towards philanthropy, and have assisted a wide range of causes and organizations over the past decade and a half. Joan says that is the fun part now getting to see where you can help and to be able to do it. It is only part of the fun that they enjoy these days, as they still love to travel. Although nowadays they look forward primarily to family visits. They head north to Washington to see older daughter, Dana, her husband, Ted, and their daughters, Megan and Ashley; or are off to the Mountain Time Zone to spend time with Linda and her boys, Nick and Tom.
The Stamper Family Through their business practices, the countless employees they ve encouraged, and the many people they have touched through philanthropic and volunteer efforts, Tom and Joan Stamper have built something that will indeed last: an unwavering commitment to help where it s needed most. There is a lot of need, Tom says. Whether it is children or people who don t know where their next meal is coming from, there is a need out there that you can t turn your back on. So the Stampers just keep pedaling and helping where they can, just like those old adventures they used to take together. Though, it should be noted, none was ever on a tandem bike. We each had a bicycle, Joan explains with a chuckle. We both need to be in charge. The tandem would never work. Life is like riding a bicycle: you don t fall off unless you stop pedaling. Claude Pepper, US politician
Bay Area Hospital Board of Directors Thomas McAndrew, MD, Chair Mike Gordon Donna Rabin, MD John Muenchrath, MD Barbara Taylor Bay Area Hospital Community Foundation Advisory Committee Joe Benetti Troy Cribbins Jon Hanson Basil Pittenger, MD Thomas McAndrew, MD, Chair Toni Poole Trish Price Arnie Roblan Patty Scott Eva Shimotakahara John Sweet Brooke Walton John Whitty Paul Janke Bay Area Hospital President/Chief Executive Officer Barbara Bauder Chief Development Officer www.bayareahospital.org