Gil Walter

Speaker 1 (00:13.494)
Welcome back to the Bridgerton Beacon. I am... I'm doing great. How are you, I'm sitting here on just a beautiful afternoon in Gil Walters' home. He's invited me in and I'm here to congratulate... You don't invite everybody in?

How you doing, Megan?

Speaker 2 (00:32.846)
You're lucky I invited you in. Only pretty girls.

Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I can see why you are loved by so many. But I wanted to say congratulations for being a recipient of the Francis H. Sharp Lifetime Achievement Award. It's being awarded to you by the Bridgerton Area Chamber of Commerce 2024 recipient. So congratulations.

Thank you much. Well, I love the local chamber. think Stan Zion does a wonderful job. I love the way he's brought in the Hispanic population, the Hispanic business people into the chamber. And so I'm honored very much to get this award.

and you know this is a lifetime achievement award and it is certainly very well deserved you you began your service to the city of brichton many years ago and specifically

24 years ago.

Speaker 1 (01:40.502)
Right, so you were specifically chosen to be the president and CEO of Community Healthcare. Do you want to talk a little bit all about how that came to be and how that organization has since evolved and the importance that it is to our town?

Well, the previous 16 or 17 years of my life before I came here, I was an executive in various health organizations, primarily those serving farm workers. So I had worked in three different community health centers in Florida.

ended up at one in Palatka, a rural town on the St. John's River, and a head hunter. I don't know how they learned what a rascal I was, but a hand hunter found me, invited me to interview for a job with what was then called Community Healthcare, Inc. It was basically operated by the local hospital. And so I came up for the interview.

with the idea that I've never been to New Jersey or Philadelphia. So it'd be a nice little jaunt. I had no idea. I couldn't imagine going to New Jersey after Florida. I thought New Jersey was a bunch of smokestacks and oil refiners and industry. And I drove across the Commodore Berry Bridge, went down through Swedesboro, came over to...

Highway 77 and drove down and I saw woods and farms and marshes and beautiful little rivulets and pretty cornfields and so on. And I thought, this is New Jersey. I fell in love with it. And the next day I interviewed with the board of then Community Healthcare Inc. The chairperson was Gwendolyn Gould.

Speaker 2 (03:40.01)
And they interviewed me at the old Centerton Inn, which I became enamored with, all these little towns, by the way. And I fell in love with Gwendolyn Gould, the chairperson of the Community Healthcare Inc. Board, and all the other board members. And most of them were women. And I knew a bit of Spanish. I knew a couple of jokes. I knew a bit about running health organizations.

I don't think I was all that outstanding a manager, although I had been pretty good with developing health centers before. And in their doubtful judgment, they selected me.

I don't know about doubtful judgment, but you and I think it was a good gamble to take because under your leadership, what was then a network of three or so hospitals or area clinics rather were transformed into a network of what 21?

Took a gamble. Took a gamble at me.

Speaker 2 (04:49.368)
anyone else.

health centers who were opened to underserved individuals in our community. So how did that transpire?

I had an outstanding organization and I had an outstanding board of visionaries and thought big and wanted to, I think the best word is access, wanted to access more healthcare needy folks. Back then we didn't have Obamacare, we didn't have expanded Medicaid, so a lot of folks had zero funds. And for many years until today, many of them were farm workers and they had no insurance, no cover.

They didn't have the documents to prove that they're eligible for those. They're still a major source of service at Complete Care. Anyway...

You were there from, what, about 2000 to 2015? Exactly. in that 15, I mean that's a lot to have accomplished in a 15 year period. so, and that organization is now Complete Care.

Speaker 2 (06:03.456)
And they're doing a bit better than I think I did. They're building new service centers, new health care centers that are about the size of hospitals. They're seeing lots of patients. It seems to be a well-run operation. I think my successor, Curtis Edwards, is doing a remarkable job. He's a visionary himself.

He is, and we're hopefully going to speak with him as well because he kind of took over after you retired, right?

But I think the main reason, method, strategy that we had in complete care is we involved everybody in the plan. I have no doubt.

Do you think that helped you to be a good mean if you were going to say what attributes a good leader has, what would it be?

They everybody. They take ownership. We would sit around the table with not just the senior managers, but the management at all the centers and people from really all levels, certainly all the medical staff. We'd sit around a big table every year or so and do what you call strategic planning. We'd set high goals. We'd set...

Speaker 2 (07:27.156)
challenging objectives to do that year and had longer range goals and we insisted on carrying them out and everybody around the table had a piece of that and had a sense of ownership. This is my health organization. These are my goals. These are the things I have to do to get there and it worked.

You need a leader that's willing to listen.

That was the easy part. I didn't have the answers. Together they had the answers. Most of them, some of them were skeptics, we can't do that. But by and large, they were people of vision. And people who believed we could accomplish what we set out to do. And we did. If the goal that year, as it often was, to open a new health center in Vineland, or a new women's health center in Millville,

or to move to new centers up around Glassboro, whatever the goals were, we got there. If we were running into obstacles, we overcame them.

That's admirable. Because you think about all of the individuals, all of the people, all the families that have been helped due to your strong leadership and your ability to allow those around you to take, like you said, ownership, to listen to them, but also to set these high goals. Don't tell me how we can't do it, tell me how we can, right?

Speaker 2 (09:06.57)
I think I had a philosophy that I think many adopted and that's problems are challenges and we're close. And I think that worked for people. They understood that there were always obstacles. There was always a problem getting a permit for a new property. Or there were recruiting the doctors. There were problems having the...

right qualifications for the people we recruited. They got in the way, we understood they were things that were challenges. They were wonderful things to win over. So think that philosophy, that attitude, the participation, just about everybody in major decision making and setting goals and objectives, I think that's the key.

How did you learn to be an effective leader?

Well, I had lot of experience in that field. had a few degrees. By the way, I had a master's degree in English, my first master's degree in anthropology. I went on to get a doctorate in anthropology, which I had to leave because I lost my scholarship and I had a new baby.

So that started me in the healthcare business, by the way. And so I had one more graduation at UCF. It was a master's in public health. So I'd have the right credentials, if you will, to do the business I was in. All those helped to give me a little wisdom. When I was younger, I really wanted to be a better leader, better manager. I took the Dale Carnegie course. There's another writer of...

Speaker 2 (10:56.522)
inspiration for business activity named Tom Peters. I read that. When I got here, I got involved in the leadership program. Yeah, I will. I always wanted to be more of a leader, more effective, get things done. I'm still that way a little bit. I've got very limited abilities these days. I walk around like I'm drunk or something.

Leadership Cumberland County? Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:25.984)
have a hard time remembering things, whatever, but every day, every week, actually, I set a set of goals, things I must accomplish, get done, and I get most of them done, not all of them, but I... I am. But you do, you do

Are you a list maker?

Speaker 1 (11:42.542)
Where are you originally from? You're not from Bridgerton. Where are you from?

Well, was born in Chicago, raised partly in Chicago and partly in neighboring communities, including Hessville, Indiana, which is not a well-known place. Pardon? Yes, I have a twin sister and a half brother when my dad remarried.

Any

okay.

Speaker 1 (12:12.44)
So are you the oldest?

We're twins. And my brother, my stepbrothers younger than me.

And you were telling me a couple minutes ago about a special teacher. Can you share that again now?

Mrs. as a trade-off for my wanting passionately to play spring football practice, she allowed me to come into a class that anybody would consider way over my head. The honor is English. And she got me excited about learning and about literature. I had some other mentors, by the way. Mr. Rasmussen.

our teacher in biology. love biology. I love critters. He rigged things so that I would be elected president of the biology club. My first act of office was to give him a pitch in to buy a boa constrictor.

Speaker 2 (13:19.24)
which many of the white rats we used for other experiments ended up in the tummy of the poor creature. And we'd all wear it around our necks and show off and what have you.

So English, biology, anthropology, public health, you're a Renaissance man.

I'm not sure about that. But yeah, there's a lot of things. I've had great adventures in my life.

Do you believe in lifelong learning?

Yeah, I do. It's a little bit challenging now. My memory is not so great, but my wife has She can remember the slightest things that happened 50 years ago. She has a very acute memory, and so she's like my memory nowadays. She remembers the wedding. She remembers my retirement. She remembers we traveled all over back in the day.

Speaker 1 (14:15.544)
Did you used to like to travel?

yeah, and in my profession of healthcare management, there's a lot of conferences to go to, almost everywhere. And I was a member of what was called the, it was a Migrant Health Conference Board, National Center for Farm Workers Health.

where I was not being on that board, they had conferences in different places, mainly in communities which are near where many farm works were. So I traveled around the country, Florida, Texas, California, and many other places. And we went to a lot of places.

We went to Italy on our honeymoon. We went to Yucatan. We went to Dominican Republic. We went to the Bahamas. I could go on and on. I enjoyed snorkeling and being on the water period. I had a sailboat here, which I bought in Florida. Sailed down the St. John's River to Jacksonville.

had it here and went out on the bay many a time. I kept at Hancock's Harbor.

Speaker 1 (15:32.556)
Really? Where did you keep it?

Speaker 1 (15:37.846)
and down there a few times.

And just had a grand time most of my life, so I've got nothing to complain about. And when I think about, you know, we're going to be going to a new place sometime in the not too distant future.

I think, what the heck? I put so much behind me. I've had a rip-snorting time, enjoyed myself, even when I was a kid, and gotten piss fights and trouble. That was all fun. I was in the detention center. spent some time in a detention center. I ran away from school. I stole my dad's car. I siphoned gas from the neighboring truck stop. I could go on and on.

I had a lot of fun.

But they made you, all those experiences made you who you are, right? I bet.

Speaker 2 (16:30.68)
Yes, I still get in trouble a little bit. I call my wife my patrol. Your wife is Betty? Yeah, Betty. And I call her my parole officer.

okay. Maybe she's the one I should be interviewing.

Yes, she keeps me out of trouble. She's a darlin'.

So you retired in 2015 after 15 years with the organization, but you've been very active in the community since. And you have been involved with Bridgerton Murdery Club, Bridgerton Area Chamber of Commerce, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Cumberland and Salem Counties, Bridgerton Main Street Association, Bayshore Discovery Project, and the Complete Care Foundation.

Obviously, service is important to you. Why?

Speaker 2 (17:26.978)
Well, they were organizations that allowed me in. Their standards weren't so high that I had obstacles.

But you made this area your home, right? You weren't originally from this area, but you moved here in 2000, led this organization and have stayed since. Didn't move away, didn't go back to Florida, have stayed here and made this your home and you've made, you continue to make an impact to the individuals and the people that live here. So.

Right.

Speaker 2 (18:03.222)
Nice of you to say so. My wife wanted to retire to Naples, Florida. I really wanted to get a double wide Everglades city. She didn't buy into that. So we thought about it a bit, not too long and realized this is our home. It's a place that definitely needs some fixing up.

Where?

Speaker 2 (18:32.97)
some improvements. I got involved in a bit of that.

Honey do less. Honey do less. Yeah.

Pardon? Yeah, I think I try to push my way into some organizations. Some invited me in, particularly when I was more active, because I wanted to be involved in things. The foundation is my pet organization. I was one of the founding members.

Alright, so explain that for our listeners. So, Community Healthcare Incorporated, at some point in time, became Complete Care. I don't know all the backgrounds behind that. Was that when you were there or after you left? It was when you were there.

No, that's when I was there. We were essentially a small department affiliated with the hospital. And you're right, had two or four health centers, I don't remember, right around Bridgerton. And as we grew, probably around 2014, I'm thinking, we decided by then we probably had...

Speaker 2 (19:40.768)
a half a dozen or so new health centers around this county. And we had aspirations to go to neighboring counties, so we changed the name. We felt it was more encompassing. We were looking for a name that fit complete. By the way, our services aren't simply primary care.

Is that why you the name?

Speaker 2 (20:01.71)
primary care doctors or family doctors, nurse practitioners, we cover really all the specialists. We have dental programs, now we have our own pharmacies. We provide women's healthcare, pediatric services, various other specialties, and those we don't have on site, we have referral arrangements with other health

Talk to me about the foundation side of it. How did the foundation come to be?

Well, it was an idea we just suddenly sprung up. know Gwen Gould had the idea. I had the idea. Dr. Gladwin Baptist, who was active on my board when I was there, had the idea. We got together, researched a few foundations that operate out of other health centers around the country.

put our ideas together. And we immediately had a good fundraiser. Previous to that, there was a fundraiser which was a karaoke benefit. And we were part of that. We raised money for Main Street Association and for Police Athletic League, and I'm not sure who else, and us.

What's the mission of the foundation?

Speaker 2 (21:24.974)
Our foundation is called Complete Care Family Health Foundation. The mission is basically to raise funds for complete care. There are many areas of service that aren't funded. They're not reimbursed by insurance companies. They're not funded through the state or through federal programs. So we needed other sources of income to do that.

I say.

For example, a special women's health program which basically takes them to the experience of childbirth and all the things they need to know, diet and otherwise, to prepare for a healthy childbirth. And then how to bring up an infant. How to provide the whole range of neonatal care. We basically were teachers then, rather than providers. And for many moms, they hadn't had that experience of learning how to be mothers.

and to care for new babies.

And there's a ripple effect when you do that, right?

Speaker 2 (22:31.118)
We had a program called SMILES where we took dental staff to schools and provided preventive dental care examinations and where we saw problems referred them. We knew many of those kids would not get dental care into their adults and many would have dental problems.

Probably for the rest of their life.

Speaker 2 (23:00.926)
we had a program especially for veterans. We provide services for veterans that their benefits as a veteran don't apply, services that aren't eligible for reimbursement, like dental care, for example, and several other programs.

That's fantastic, that's great. Are you still involved in the foundation now? You are? Okay. That's wonderful. They probably really appreciate having your wealth of experience and knowledge to be able to draw on your leadership skills.

Yes.

Speaker 2 (23:40.854)
I think that works to some degree, but being a long-term veteran of the foundation, which goes back to about the time I retired.

Speaker 2 (23:57.878)
I have, as a veteran in the foundation, and having been around a long time, a whole bunch of ideas. I'm working with a new generation.

Yeah, well.

I think, so my ideas isn't in their world view, many of my ideas. I still have the crazy ideas I had back when I was executive of complete care, that we can conquer the world next year.

one step at a time.

A step at a time. Anyway, I'm having a pretty good time with that, learning new things. We've had a number of events that are very successful, especially the Legends event annually, where we celebrate a major hero from each of the counties. From each of the Cumberland towns.

Speaker 1 (24:52.43)
Every town in Cumberland County.

Right. And that's a very successful event.

And all of the funds that are raised through that go to the foundation. That's great. That's great. So what advice, if any, would you give to our listeners about how to... You've talked about being a good leader. You've talked about this idea of lifelong learning. You've talked about community service.

Are these all the things that go towards a rich and fulfilling life is helping others? What advice would you give for someone who is looking to not just fulfill their own life, but impact other people?

Early to bed, early to rise. I think I'm stuck on the notions of leadership. I've been since I was very young. Got to go to different colleges, achieve, got into a lot of things I did, mainly achieved. I was a pretty good fighter when I was a kid, which was fun back then. I boxed, amateur boxing, for example. Everything was fun, so I think.

Speaker 2 (26:15.596)
make life an adventure. And in terms of leadership, your idea isn't to supervise people, to be in charge of them, to be in charge of what they do. That's not what leadership's about. Leadership is inspiration. Leadership is inviting them into the decision making.

That's not what you're to do.

Speaker 2 (26:41.6)
inviting them into the adventure, if you will. Letting them set the goals with you. Sometimes that involves you're pushing a little bit, shoving a little bit, you're pulling, but you're reaching out to achieve something you have in common. So I think that's the business. You're not a boss. The best thing you do is listen.

You sit around a table or a group of people and you say, let me hear your idea of where we're going to be three years from now. How do you see us? What does it feel like? What are the accomplishments we've had? And it makes us go all around the table. Some people are hesitant a little bit. Well, I'm not sure. Well, often people would say, I think we can do this. We might be able to do this. I hate those words. We're going to do it.

Do really want to know?

Speaker 2 (27:37.998)
That's you say. We're going to do it, period. We're going to accomplish what we set out to do. Problems will arise. There are opportunities and we're close.

And you have, you have done it.

Yeah, don't sound like a big shot hero, godlike figure, Superman or whatever. No, it's none of that. It's sort of common sense thing and it's being a bit stubborn. I'm going to make that Are you stubborn? yes. Really? yeah. That's probably one of my faults.

I didn't know that.

Speaker 2 (28:18.594)
need to more, if you will, concede, compromise, which is sort of a little bit the opposite of being a good leader in that you're inspiring, you're challenging people to go somewhere. You have to kind of ease up. You can't be a Bobby Knight your whole night. By the way, I went to Indiana University.

Ah, there you go. Are you a Bobby Knight fan?

No. Because he liked a certain presidential person that I'm not.

understand.

that at all. He was all a tough guy. may, most people remember the game we were playing against, I don't know, probably Ohio State, and we were taking a lot of fouls, and he threw a chair right out into the field, right out into the court. Not my kind of guy. I guess the intensity, the perseverance, the toughness, if you will,

Speaker 2 (29:24.328)
moderated by giving other people a piece of the action, guess I would put it, inviting them to join the leaders.

I like that a lot.

So I really am sounding a little bit too holy and divine and special. It's pretty much plain everyday ordinary stuff. You just need to kind of wrap it up in a ball and use it, push it.

That's okay.

Speaker 1 (30:00.246)
really really good words of wisdom.

Yeah, I learned it all from Aristotle, Socrates, Plato. They taught me everything they'd done.

Well, I just want to thank you again for taking the time to speak with me and again, congratulations on being a recipient of the Francis H. Sharp Lifetime Achievement Award. It is very well deserved and I just, I think that...

The contributions that you have made to this community, our community, are just unprecedented. So thank you for all that you've done and continue to do.

Thank you for that and your board member on the chamber. You're among those who had the dubious judgment to select me for this honor. appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (30:54.6)
I am, I am, but that's not why I'm

Speaker 1 (31:01.708)
Well, the Rich and Area Chamber of Commerce has a special committee for that. I'm not on that committee. However, I know that you're certainly in good company. All of the award recipients this year are amazing, as they are every year. you know, it's lot of tough competition for these awards. So it was well deserved.

And it's nice to be on the same list of honorees with Curtis Edwards. We did very Did you? Yeah, and as probably at least the last couple of years, I let a lot of things go over to Curtis. He did them amazingly well.

Did you work together?

Speaker 2 (31:49.486)
You know, the other, the big hero for complete care is Gwendolyn Gould.

She was Harold Gould's husband. Harold Gould played for the Negro Baseball League.

He played for the Negro League in Philly and was a pretty good star and she was an inspiration. She was a wonderful, funny, inspiring, lovable woman. I miss her.

I'm sure many do. Gil, thank you.

Thank you.