Baumgart, long-time hospital director, dies

Parvin A. Baumgart of Lanesville died Saturday, Jan. 28, 2006, at a place he was very familiar with: Harrison County Hospital in Corydon.
Baumgart, 76, led HCH through many significant events, including substantial building projects in 1971, 1981, 1984, 1985, 1988 and 1995. He spoke at last fall’s groundbreaking ceremony for the new $47 million hospital.
‘He was a real asset to the hospital,’ said Steve Taylor, executive director of HCH.
Baumgart was appointed to the hospital’s board of directors in June 1966 and became its chairman the following year. Taylor said Baumgart chaired 475 board meetings. (The United States has had eight different presidents during Baumgart’s tenure on the hospital board.)
‘He was a wealth of knowledge,’ Taylor said, ‘and will be greatly missed by HCH.’
Taylor selected several words to describe Baumgart: leader, visionary, wise, compassionate, honorable, fair, tireless and humorous.
Baumgart also assisted in increasing the medical staff from 35 physicians in 1980 to 115, and saw the employee staff increase from 70 in 1965 to more than 450.
‘On behalf of the HCH Board and Parvin’s entire HCH family, we express our utmost sympathy to his wife, Jean, and the Baumgart family,’ Taylor said.
Baumgart was a native of Lanesville, born Sept. 18, 1929, the son of the late Victor C.F. and Elnora Schneider Baumgart.
Harrison County Hospital wasn’t his only profession. He was a school teacher in Lanesville from 1952 to 1956, a principal from 1956 to 1958, and worked for the Federal Aviation Administration at Standiford Field in Louisville from 1958 to 1989 as an air traffic controller and a data systems specialist.
He was an Air Force veteran of the Korean War.
In addition to serving on the Harrison County Hospital board, he was a member of the Harrison County Hospital Foundation and Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Edwardsville.
Besides his parents, he was preceded in death by a son, Michael Clark Baumgart, and two brothers, Paul and Ralph Baumgart.
Survivors include his wife, the former Jean Carver; a son, James N. Baumgart of New Albany; two daughters, Judith B. Geswein of Indianapolis and Janis K. Allen of Lanesville, and five grandchildren.
The funeral was yesterday (Tuesday) at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Lanesville with burial in the church cemetery. Pastor Mark L. Darnstaedt officiated. Gehlbach & Royse Funeral Home in Corydon handled the arrangements.
The family suggests memorial gifts to Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, St. John’s Lutheran School or Harrison County Hospital Foundation.