ISSUE: New book chronicles hospital’s history
OUR VIEW: Diane Logsdon creates community gift
Diane Logsdon has spent the first part of retirement doing what she did most of her professional career: Promoting the very best qualities of Hardin Memorial Hospital.
Logsdon served in multiple roles at the hospital after graduating in the first class of Elizabethtown Community College’s nursing program: Staff nurse, house supervisor, director of medical/surgical nursing and vice president of planning and development. She retired in 2012 as vice president and chief operating officer of Hardin Memorial Health and transitioned into an administrative executive role focused on community relations.
Much of those past five years has been devoted to preserving the history of the hospital. She has voluminous scrapbooks packed with clippings about HMH developments large and small. Many are accompanied by formal photographs and casual snapshots of those who transformed a small country hospital into a regional medical center and the centerpiece of a 10-county health care network.
She compiled it all into a hardback book titled “HMH: A Pictorial History Celebrating 60 Years.” It chronicles the hospital from 1954 to 2014 and reflects her obvious devotion to the institution and love for its people.
“I knew if the history was not captured, it would be lost,” she said. “I didn’t want this history to be lost.”
The book is divided into three parts starting with the first 30 years and ending with the three decades concluding in 2014. The center section concentrates on the volunteer auxiliary, staff and physicians, partnership with the military, support from the community and giving back. The third part focuses on HMH’s continued growth from 1985 through 2014.
In a sense, it’s her gift to the community. And as another symbol of her devotion to the hospital and its future, Logsdon plans to donate proceeds from the book sales to the HMH Foundation, on which she serves as a board member.
Hardin Memorial — for that matter, Hardin County — may not have a better friend and public servant than Diane Logsdon.
