St. Luke’s board members Carolyn Terteling-Payne, Pat McMurray, Charlie Wilson, and Gay Simplot have much in common.

Generations of their family members are knit into the fabric of the community through public service and business during the past 100 years. All have been personally involved for decades with dozens of local nonprofit and service organizations. Most of their children and grandchildren have been born at St. Luke’s in Boise, where many of their parents received loving care at the end of their days.

On April 15, the four were honored at a reception as they retired from the St. Luke’s Board of Directors. Each will continue serving on various committees. In the Magic Valley, Dr. Bob Ward, St. Luke’s Clinic gastroenterologist, is retiring as a board chair from St. Luke’s Magic Valley/St. Luke’s Jerome. Changes to the boards are part of St. Luke’s recent governance restructuring to account for the needs of those communities the system serves throughout the region.

We asked board members to share favorite memories and highlights from their association with St. Luke’s.

Carolyn Terteling-Payne (board member, 1976 – 2014)

At the age of 15, Carolyn Terteling-Payne acquired one of her first jobs at St. Luke’s. A friend’s father worked for St. Luke’s and encouraged the two girls to apply for summer jobs. They spent the first summer folding laundry and the second, delivering meals to patients.

“It’s been a long, enjoyable, amazing journey,” she said.

Terteling-Payne is a businesswoman and former Boise mayor and City Council member. She joined the St. Luke’s Board of Directors in 1976 as the first woman to serve.

“It was a good time to involve women in the board and in decision-making,” she said. “Women make most healthcare decisions.”

Terteling-Payne founded the St. Luke’s Boise and Meridian Women’s Forum to educate women about health care issues. She also initiated the Meridian and Eagle Advisory Council. She chairs both committees and will continue to serve on them.

As a locally owned and locally managed healthcare system, St. Luke’s always has attracted the finest community-oriented people as leaders and employees, Terteling-Payne said.

“I’ve had the great pleasure of knowing some extraordinary people,” she said. “It’s great to have participated all these years as St. Luke’s has grown and matured.”

Pat McMurray (board member, 1988 – 2014)

Pat joined the St. Luke's Regional Medical Center Board in 1988 the same year he had been appointed president and CEO of First Security Bank of Idaho, which role he continued subsequent to that banks merger with Wells Fargo in 2000, until his retirement in 2007.

At the time, the Treasure Valley population was growing westward, and St. Luke’s made the significant decision to serve its patients closer to home by establishing its second hospital. An outpatient facility opened in 1996, followed by a full-service community hospital in 2001. St. Luke’s Meridian is the busiest emergency department in the state.

“It was a very strategic investment the hospital made to grow and to be very successful,” he said.

He served for much of his board tenure on the Finance and Audit Committee including committee chairman on multiple occasions, also serving on various other committees including Planning and Strategy, Quality, and Investments. He will continue serving St. Luke's as a non-board member appointee of both the Finance and Wellness Committees. Highlights of his board tenure include serving as a founding member and vice-chair of the St. Luke's Health Foundation at its inception in 1991 and his tenure as St. Luke's Board chairman 2010-2012.

He and his wife, Lisa, have a long personal association with St. Luke’s as well. Both their sons were born at St. Luke’s. Lisa’s grandfather, Dr. Sam Forney, her father, internist Dr. William Forney, and her uncle, the Dr. Richard Forney, all served in leadership roles on St. Luke's medical staff beginning with her grandfather in the 1920s.

McMurray said these connections made it all the more a privilege for him to participate as a board member.

“I’ve always been so impressed with the quality of the people and the board members involved over the years," he said. "It has been a very enriching experience to be closely associated with many talented and dedicated people, nonmedical board members, medical staff and their colleagues. Many of them became friends, not just associate board members."

Charlie Wilson (board member, 1996 – 2014)

Charlie Wilson was born in Boise and raised in Eugene, Ore. He returned to the Treasure Valley on a football scholarship to Boise Junior College (now Boise State) in 1958, when Lyle Smith was coach and the team won the National Junior College Athletic Association’s National Football Championship.

Wilson said he and his family believe in giving back, and serving on the St. Luke’s board and many others was a great way to do just that.

“We’ve been in the community and believe in the community,” he said.

In 1996, St. Luke’s opened its Meridian facility as Wilson, a local businessman and one-time owner of the KBOI broadcasting group, joined the board. He’s served on almost all the St. Luke’s board committees and on credentialing committees, and was board chairman from 2006 to 2009.

He said he’s been fortunate to see the success of the Meridian hospital and the growth of St. Luke’s Health System.

“I’ve enjoyed it all the way along,” he said. “I’ve been impressed with the people who have helped make St. Luke’s what it is – an integral part of the community.”

Gay Simplot (board member, 2002 – 2014)

Gay Simplot, a director of J.R. Simplot Co., joined St. Luke’s board in 2002. She’s been instrumental in the capital campaign for St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital and raised money for St. Luke’s Mountain States Tumor Institute.

“It was quite a rewarding experience to be able to support MSTI in the way we did,” she said.

She gladly accepted a St. Luke’s board position because she believed it would be the best way for her to help raise the quality of life for employees and families in the Treasure Valley.

Simplot worked on a number of committees and an initiative to lessen employee burdens and injuries through better tracking of injuries and time away from work. Research also led to an improvement in the timing of shifts. She will continue to serve on the Quality Committee for the western division of the Health System.

“It’s become a major part of this institution, which is something I’m really proud of, and the way we treat our employees,” she said.

Three of Simplot’s children were born at St. Luke’s and the fourth was cared for at St. Luke’s NICU. She remains passionate about St. Luke’s and quality of life for employees and patients.

All together the four board members have served 94 years, almost a century – so far.

“St. Luke’s will always be close to my heart,” Terteling-Payne said. “It’s been such a joy to meet and work with such brilliant people.”

In the Magic Valley

Dr. Bob Ward, St. Luke’s Clinic gastroenterologist, is retiring as a board member from St. Luke’s Magic Valley/St. Luke’s Jerome. Dr. Ward was instrumental in the sale of the Twin Falls Clinic and Hospital to Magic Valley Regional Medical Center, and also during the integration from Magic Valley Regional Medical Center to St. Luke’s in 2006. Dr. Ward currently serves on the State Board of Medicine.