BUCKHANNON – Community Care of West Virginia’s chief executive officer has retired after 30 years.
Rick Simon, the CEO of CCWV, was surprised Sept. 13 – the day of his official retirement – with a building dedication in his honor.
Rosemary Thomas, president of the Board of Directors for Community Care of West Virginia, Community Care staff and other community members gathered at the Community Care building at 37 W. Main Street to honor Simon and all his hard work over the years.
“This building will be forever named in your honor as the Richard G. Simon building in recognition of 30 years of service — 30 years of commitment to enhancing access to high-quality health care in Central West Virginia,” Thomas said. “Upon [your] retirement from Community Care of West Virginia, this building will be dedicated to you in perpetuity.”
“We will send you the utility bills, and I believe the security cameras will be fed to your house,” Thomas joked. “But in all sincerity, sir, congratulations and thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”
Simon said he couldn’t have been so successful without all CCWV’s employees, its management team and the people Community Care serves.
“It’s easy to do good things when you’re around a lot of good people, and I’ve had that blessing over the years, having a wonderful group of employees, and I’ve had a tremendous management team,” Simon said. “The best compliment I can pay [them] is that this management team will never notice the fact that I’m gone, which means I didn’t do a whole lot of work or that I had really good people.”
Simon said the people are what kept him at the same place for so long.
“It’s very easy: I told them I would stay for 30 years, and they didn’t chase me off,” Simon said. “It was great, but even more so, it was fun. I enjoyed working with the people; we’ve had a great board and a great group of employees to work with, and the folks that we’re serving are wonderful.”
Thomas said they opted to dedicate the building to Simon in acknowledgment and appreciation of his many years with Community Care of West Virginia.
“There’s no real way to say thank you, but we wanted to make sure the legacy that Rick has created lives on, not only in the people but in the services that will be provided through this facility as well as across Community Care of West Virginia,” Thomas said. “This will also acknowledge his years of service and certainly all that he has done. It’s about the people, but the bricks-and-mortar also have a footprint in this community and the greater community that he has served.”
Community Care of West Virginia is a Federally Qualified Health Center located in Central West Virginia with 16 community health center locations, 51 school-based health sites, seven 340(b) pharmacies and one dental office, according to its website.
