Journal of Sacred Work

   Attendees at Alumni reunions typically wonder how colleagues performed post "graduation." Did they continue serving? Did they even become famous?

   Since this Journal is international (15% of readers are foreign) I will introduce an especially successful alum of Riverside Methodist Hospital. Dr. James N. "Nick" Baird, M.D., Chief of Staff in 1983, was the first doctor with whom I interviewed to be CEO.

  The Journal featured him back in 2021 with the same picture. This time it is to highlight alumni super success. 

  Hanna, of course, became famous. But Nick also became well-known far beyond the hospital. In our first conversation, we began not by discussing human health but how Dr. Baird, a world class Ob-Gyn, had helped deliver a baby gorilla!

   "How did that go?" I asked

   "You don't wanna get too close to an animal that big in that situation," he laughed with a unique smile I will never forget.

   By the end of our talk we were calling each other "Chip" and "Nick." Forty-two years later we remain great friends. 

   Nick went on to become Sr. Vice President for Medical Affairs at Riverside and took the same role at U.S. Health (now OhioHealth.) An even greater calling awaited him that many Riverside alums may not know.

   In 1999, Dr. Baird skyrocketed to statewide influence as Director of Ohio's Department of Health, overseeing the wellbeing of 11 million citizens over the next eight years!

   After that, Dr. Baird expanded his service as CEO of US Healthiest, a collaboration of national, state and local health organizations and consumers committed to making the U.S. "the healthiest nation in a healthier world!"  

   There are metrics for success. But no one can calculate how many individuals have been touched by Nick's gifts.

  I did not interview him for this column. If so, I would have asked him his career's biggest highlight. Knowing his modesty, there's a good chance he would have said, "It was that gorilla delivery, Chipper!"

   Then he would have given me that warm grin. The same one he gave me in 1983.

   The one that makes me not only respect him, but love him.

-Erie "Chip" Chapman

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*Photo: Nick Baird, Jack Hanna and Erie Chapman