UPMC Chautauqua employees received scholarship awards through the Dr. Harold and Joyce Childress Fund at the WCA Foundation: Megan Barone, Tammy Bimber, Ashton Bird, Emma Blasius, Sara Kuhns, Andrew Pezzulo, Jaci Spoon, Samantha Vanbukskirk, Kristi Wragge, Jen Zabala and Kristin Johnson. Each of the scholarship awardees are pursuing career advancement in their field of nursing, business, and education that will benefit all areas of patient care within the hospital.
The Childress Fund at WCA Foundation was established in 1995 by Dr. Harold Childress, an orthopedic surgeon at WCA Hospital, and his wife Joyce. The fund benefits cancer treatment, hospital medical library, and hospital staff scholarships.
Childress, a native of Kentucky, practiced medicine from 1939 to 1994 in Jamestown. He was the first physician in Chautauqua County to serve in World War, II. Following the war, he resumed his Jamestown practice where he served as a medical staff of both former area hospitals, the WCA Hospital and the Jamestown General Hospital. He retired in at age 71 for just two weeks. He returned to his active practice.
Dr. Childress valued learning and in his 91 years never stopped his education. He published a book, Unique Experiences, Easy Does it that chronicles his experiences as a physician and his work in the Army and with prison inmates facing death row at San Quentin and Joliet prisons. A life-long health enthusiast, he was often spotted swimming in the chilly waters of Chautauqua Lake in the spring and fall. Dr. Childress died in 1996 at age 91.