Supply Chain Hall of Fame Honorees

The honorees were the late Dean S. Ammer, Ph.D., Lee C. Boergadine, Gene D. Burton, Charles E. Housley, Thomas W. Kelly, William J. McFaul, Tom Pirelli, Donald J. Siegle and Alex J. Vallas. All of the honorees weren’t present to receive their award, but here are some of the comments from the ones that did attend from a news release provided by the Bellwether League.

Lee C. Boergadine reflected on his career “from Peoria to here,” as characterized by (Jamie) Kowalski. He called his induction into Bellwether League “one of the most exciting and humbling evenings of my life, second only to the evening my wife Marty said ‘I do.’”

Boergadine then traced his professional and personal development as influenced by five of his fellow inductees. “There’s no more eloquent way to demonstrate what it is to be a bellwether than to be a young man in Central Illinois and have personal contact with my fellow honorees,” he concluded. “Thank you all for the part you played in my life.”

Kowalski recalled meeting with Burton for advice and how Burton gave him four-to-five hours of his time as a demonstration of Burton’s commitment to the profession. The retired Burton expressed appreciation for being able to see people he hasn’t seen in years, thanked Bellwether League and his former employers and employees during his career, and capped his brief comments by thanking his wife of 63 years who was seated in the audience, next to Suzan Logan, who leads his consulting firm Gene Burton & Associates Inc.

(Thomas) Kelly called it a “thrill” to receive Bellwether League’s award and a “capstone” to his career. “When I was a young buck getting started at GE, [a manager] told me there were four things you need for success: A good education (Kelly highlighted his Jesuit school in New York), work hard (he told audience members to ask his wife Mary in attendance about the dinners and parent-teacher conferences he missed), mentors (he cited two, his boss at Massachusetts General Hospital Randy McDonald and Bellwether League Board Member Tom Hughes) and you have to be lucky.”

As you can see, it was an emotional time for these awardees who started their supply chain careers just like all of us just wanting to make a difference.  Well, these individuals sure did make a difference in how we in the healthcare supply chain management see our jobs today. Not as buyers, but as supply chain executives who manage multi-million dollar supply chain businesses that can make a big difference in our healthcare organization’s bottom line. Congratulation to these supply chain heroes for their contribution to our discipline.