A man recognized as a national leader in health care and medical education will be honored by West Virginia University during Commencement weekend.
Eugene L. Staples will receive the President’s Distinguished Service Award, given solely at the discretion of WVU ’s president for exceptional leadership in the state and nation. Staples will receive the award at commencement exercises Sunday, May 16, at the WVU Coliseum.
As the first administrator of WVU Hospitals, Staples arrived in Morgantown Jan. 17, 1960, with the daunting task of getting the new hospital open for patient care in just seven months. There were many concerns, Staples recalled, such as the effect the new facility would have on hospitals in the surrounding communities. Assistance from the University community and then Gov. Cecil Underwood remained crucial to meeting the deadline, he added.
Staples opened the hospital in 1960 and served as administrator until 1982. He held the position of associate professor in the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry during his tenure at WVU , and he twice served as chairman of the West Virginia Hospital Association. He also is one of only two West Virginians to ever chair the American Hospital Association Regional III Policy Board and serve as a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Hospital Association.
He left WVU Hospitals in 1982 to join former WVU President Gene Budig at the University of Kansas, where Staples served as the Vice Chancellor for Hospital Administration at the KU Hospital until his retirement in 1991. KU’s Medical Center Alumni Association honored Staples in 1986 with the Honorary Medical Alumnus Award, which is presented annually to an individual who is not a graduate of the KU School of Medicine but has made a significant impact through professional or personal contributions to the school, medical center or health education.
One of Staples’lasting legacies is the number of people he educated, trained and mentored while at WVU Hospitals, colleagues say. Many of those individuals have gone on to serve as CEOs of various hospitals in the state and around the country, including J. Thomas Jones, who is the president and CEO of West Virginia United Health System, and Bernard G. Westfall, retired president and CEO of WVU Hospitals and founding president of West Virginia United Health System.
Before coming to West Virginia, Staples held administrative roles at the University of Minnesota Hospital, where he was charged with equipping the Mayo Memorial addition and planning and equipping the Masonic Memorial addition, among other duties.
Born in Walker, Minn., Staples earned a bachelor of science in liberal arts and a master of hospital administration from the University of Minnesota.
He and his wife, Noreen, now reside in Durham, N.C.