Beaufort Memorial Hospital’s Board of Trustees has elected Terry Murray, retired chief financial officer of Beaufort-Jasper Water & Sewer Authority, as chair of the nonprofit hospital’s governing body.
Murray had been the board’s vice chair. She replaces Jerry Schulze, whose term expired this year.
Prior to being appointed to the BMH Board of Trustees, Murray served on the Broad River Healthcare Board of Directors. A resident of Beaufort for 35 years, she has been active in a number of local civic organizations, serving as board chair of Historic Beaufort Foundation, Beaufort County Open Land Trust and Friends of Caroline Hospice.
Murray started her career in Phoenix where she was planning director of the Office of Economic Planning and Development, part of the Arizona governor’s office. After moving to Beaufort, she developed two downtown businesses and went on to become area director of the Small Business Development Center at the University of South Carolina.
She holds a Master of Public Administration from Arizona State University.
Taking over her spot as vice chair will be Dr. Patricia Thompson, a board-certified OB-GYN. She also has assisted in the implementation of the hospital’s upgraded clinical information system, Meditech 6.0.
Dave Tedder, a lifelong resident of Beaufort County and an attorney in private practice, was elected secretary.
The nine members of the Board of Trustees are appointed by Beaufort County Council and serve rotating terms. Spring Island resident William A. Himmelsbach, a retired health care executive with extensive experience in nonprofit hospitals and health care organizations, was chosen to fill the open vice chair position.
During his 36-year career, Himmelsbach served as president and CEO of the Detroit, Mich.,
receiving hospital; Holy Cross Health System in South Bend, Ind.; St. Mary’s Health Services in Grand Rapids, Mich.; and The Institute of Living in Hartford, Conn., the third oldest psychiatric hospital in the U.S.
He went on to serve 12 years as executive officer of VHA Empire-Metro, an organization established by 42 nonprofit hospitals to develop a strategic alliance to achieve common operations and clinical objectives.
Most recently, Himmelsbach was president and CEO of New York’s Cardiovascular Research Foundation, a nonprofit academic research organization affiliated with Columbia University.
Himmelsbach is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Labor-Management Relations from Penn State University and a Masters in Public Health in Health Administration from the University of Pittsburgh.
