Legacy Award: Dee and Dave Dillon

I've had three intersections with the hospital. The first is interesting, and today, looking back at it, a very wonderful story. Our son got married about 20-plus years ago here in Kansas City; my wife had a medical emergency the morning of the wedding. We came to KU hospital. Tammy came and helped connect us with the surgeon, and Dee had surgery that morning,

But she also needed to get to a wedding, and after a lot of activity and a lot of things put in motion, she was able to do that. And to this day, she will always recognize the fact that she had surgery and she still made it on time to the wedding.

She had to come back to the hospital for a couple more days to finish recovering. That was our introduction to KU hospital. Later, Bob and Tammy asked me if I would join the board. I did that as I was retiring from Kroger.

Many of you know that Dave Dillon was the CEO of Kroger. He clearly has great business acumen and leadership traits, and he cares about people. He knows the importance of people. He knows that in our organization and in any organization which he's a part of. I also think it's important for people to know that Dee Dillon is a really great business woman. She also knows the value and the importance of people, and you see that in what she does every single day.

Dave has so much experience running a major organization like Kroger that I think he was just the perfect person to be in charge, to lead some of the efforts that were going on, and it took someone with the ability to think large and organize a large organization to be able to do that.

Dave brings to the board something that he's learned in his management days, and that is the value of feedback. He treasures feedback that he receives himself, and he feels compelled to offer that feedback to those that he's helping to oversee, and he makes people more effective and more decisive. Dave is a fascinating individual. Like Dee, he's humble and unassuming.

One of the things that I love about Dave and Dee's story is they not only are philanthropically supportive and also of their time and effort, they choose us for their care. And so it's hard to find a bigger commitment when somebody wants to put their life in your hands.

I've seen in the hospital from the patient point of view, from the public, as a citizen of the community point of view, and as a member of the board of directors, I really appreciated each of those vantage points

Through my conversations with Dave, many conversations we've had together, and he lovingly talked about Dee, and it's clear that they have a wonderful marriage. Dave said that she is his primary sounding board over the course of his career, and he takes as gospel what she tells him,

We know that they have done great things in terms of being the co-chairs of the capital campaign for the University of Kansas, the Med Center and the health system. That's a really big job, and they've done that, and we so appreciate that. They've also been great supporters of the health system in so many ways, and they've supported us philanthropically as well.

I can't think of a better use of a Legacy Award than to be given to Dave and Dee Dillon

On top of everything else that they've done in their lives, they're very generous folks, willing always to lead various philanthropic causes and to donate deeply of their own money. So The University of Kansas Health System is very blessed to have them within our family, and they're most worthy of receiving the Legacy Award.

They also believe in us. They believe in The University of Kansas Health System, and they believe in our vision to lead the nation in caring, healing, teaching and discovering that's really important. They want us to get there, and they're helping us do just that.

Legacy awardees are really those individuals that have put an imprint on our organization.

They care about our place. It's not just something they say, it's something they do. And I am grateful that the Dee and Dave Dillon partnership is a supporter and a friend of The University of Kansas Health System.

Those are the kind of people that we want to recognize with the Legacy Award.

Obviously, we're honored, and we appreciate it. For me, and for Dee, this is a chance for us to say thank you to the whole group of caregivers that we really appreciate you.