The day after her retirement from Jefferson Healthcare hospital’s South County Medical Clinic in Quilcene, nurse practitioner Merrily Mount was honored May 4 by the community she served for 21 years.

Jefferson Healthcare CEO Mike Glenn noted that he has attended more than half a dozen previous meetings at the Quilcene Community Center, which he credited with generating “a lot of good ideas and energy” to serve the health care needs of the community.

But as he stood in the Quilcene Community Center May 4, he credited Mount with being “the focal point of that energy,” and praised the “nimbleness” with which she navigated the hospital’s bureaucracy over the years.

“Health care has changed significantly over the course of those years, but Merrily has always found ways to take care of this community,” Glenn said. “We will miss her almost as much as you will miss her.”

“I don’t think so!” yelled Susan Ambrosius, one of Mount’s patients, drawing laughter from the packed room.

Although Glenn pledged Jefferson Healthcare’s commitment to maintaining the South County Medical Clinic “long after” Mount’s departure, he freely acknowledged, “It won’t be the same without her.”

Jefferson County Commissioner Kathleen Kler of District 3, which includes Quilcene, noted that Mount had already received a special recognition award from the Jefferson County Board of Health for her contributions to the well-being of the community.

The Board of Health passed an additional resolution honoring Mount, from which Kler read aloud, commending the nurse practitioner for protecting the health of the community’s residents, and describing Mount as “the sole constant” in the “quality health care” they received for more than two decades.

Kler closed her remarks by complimenting Mount’s retirement as “another example of self-care” she had provided to her patients.

Larry Karp, chief of Quilcene Fire Rescue, presented Mount with a “challenge coin,” bearing the former and current patch insignias of his department, in honor of “the big support” Mount has shown its staff over the years.

“After all, she uses our services on a regular basis,” Karp noted, half-jokingly.

Linda Rohrs, Ambrosius’ partner, was similarly semi-serious as she confessed to feeling “abandonment” over losing her health care provider of more than 20 years.

“She’s like a country doctor,” said Rohrs, who attributed the growth of Quilcene’s business community in no small part to the efforts of Mount to foster its vitality. “She’s such an overachiever, she makes the rest of us look like slackers, and I love her, even though she told me to lose weight.”

David Neuenschwander, executive director of the North Hood Canal Chamber of Commerce, thanked Anne Ricker and Vic Dirksen, a retired Jefferson Healthcare administrator, with joining the chamber as early supporters of the South County Medical Clinic, the first of Jefferson Healthcare's community primary care clinics.

At the same time, Neuenschwander and Dirksen agreed that one of the clinic's greatest advantages has been its recruitment of Mount.

“She's a force of nature,” Neuenschwander said.

Dirksen lauded Ricker for her “leadership” in getting the clinic started, which included her and Joe Baisch’s work to help pass the hospital bond in South County, but he admitted, “When we recruited Merrily, we had no idea she would still be here 22 years later.”

Mount thanked her succession of reception and administration staffers over the years, including Linda Ott, Kathy Kieffer-Rombokas, Ruth Merryman, Barb Whittaker and Candace Frye-Taylor.

“You can’t run a clinic like this without ancillary staff,” Mount said. “Vic established an outpatient medical clinic in this area when that wasn’t a popular model. And while other rural clinics are closing, ours is growing and expanding, thanks to Vic’s dream and Mike’s hard work.”