[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 123 (Thursday, September 20, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1682]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  IN TRIBUTE TO CHARLES M. HAIR, M.D.

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ELTON GALLEGLY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 20, 2001

  Mr. GALLEGLY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in tribute to Charles M. Hair, 
M.D., cofounder and President of the Livingston Memorial Foundation and 
Chairman of the Board of Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse 
Association.
  Dr. Hair was raised in my district, in the farming community of Santa 
Paula, California. He joined the U.S. Army after earning his M.D. at 
the USC School of Medicine, and served two years in an Army field 
hospital in post-World War II Salzburg, Austria.
  He returned to his home in Ventura County, California, in 1948, and 
for the next 38 years led a fulfilling life as a family doctor. He and 
his wife, Gerry, whom he met when he was a student at Ventura College 
and she a student at Ventura High School, raised five children here.
  During that time, Dr. Hair made his home a better home for all his 
neighbors. Dr. Hair's leadership in the field of nonprofit healthcare 
philanthropy began in 1950 when he became an active member of the 
Ventura County Medical Society, of which he became president in 1958. 
He soon joined the Governing Council of the California Medical Council 
and served as CMA president from 1981 to 1983. Other boards he served 
on through the years are the California State Board of Consumer 
Affairs, the California State Chamber of Commerce, Western Conference 
of Prepaid Service Plan and Blue Shield of California.
  Perhaps his most enduring legacy is cofounding Livingston Memorial 
Foundation in 1974 with Oxnard attorney Ben Nordman. The Foundation 
provides grants to enhance local patient care and make it available to 
people in financial need. In 1981, the then-Ventura Visiting Nurses 
Association, founded in 1947, affiliated with Livingston Memorial 
Foundation and changed its name to Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse 
Association (LMVNA). Together, the nonprofit organizations have greatly 
enhanced health care for those who otherwise would not be able to 
afford it.
  LMVNA was founded to provide home care services as an alternative to 
institutionalizing the frail, elderly, sick and disabled, an idea dear 
to the heart of a family physician. In 1965, Medicare certified LMVNA 
as a home health agency. In 1987--now affiliated with Livingston 
Memorial Foundation--it developed a Medicare-certified Hospice program. 
The LMVNA Hospice program incorporates skilled nursing care with a 
multidisciplinary team approach to meet the physical, emotional and 
spiritual needs of the terminally ill and their families.
  Needed services are provided at reduced or no charge to those who 
cannot afford to pay for them.
  Mr. Speaker, Dr. Hair ``retired'' in the mid-1980s, but his 
dedication to his profession and the ill continues undaunted. He is the 
epitome of the family doctor, one who knows that diagnosing an illness 
is just one part of the healing process. I know my colleagues will join 
me in recognizing his vast contributions to medicine, to his community, 
and to the ill, and thank him for a lifetime of healing.

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