by Fred Hernandez
“Fading into the sunset” is an appropriate description often used with affection and admiration for someone leaving office. For someone who served well and with distinction. That is the perfect description for the retirement of one who served his country in time of conflict, one who served his community diligently day after day for a long period of time, one who continues to serve his county as a man of God. That man is David McConnell. He will be retiring soon from the local clinic and will be sorely missed.
Not originally from the Wet Mountain Valley area, he was born in a town called Jersey Shore near Williamsport, Pennsylvania, The Keystone State, after the Second World War (1948). For readers who are lovers of baseball you will be interested to learn that Williamsport is home to Little League Baseball, a program founded in that city in 1939. The first Little League World Series was played there in 1947. From Williamsport the Little League Baseball program spread out quickly throughout the U.S.A. in a very short period of time.
David grew up in the country near Williamsport through his grade school and high school years. In 1968, he was drafted into the United States Army and was deployed to war torn Vietnam where he was injured twice and was awarded the highly respected Purple Heart Medal while serving with the storied 101st Airborne. While in military service, a period of a dozen years, he attended nursing school at the 91C Medical and Medic School where he earned his qualification as a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). Once out of military service in 1980, and based in Colorado, he was contemplating going to medical school. To get started in that direction he enrolled at the Metro State University and earned a degree in Chemistry. Having completed that course but still not entirely committed to med school he learned to be and got a certificate as an anesthesia technician in Denver.
The why and the how David eventually ended up in Custer County is its own little narrative. His father-in-law emigrated from Germany some years before. With a deep desire to own land he responded to an advertisement in a Mechanics Illustrated magazine and, sight unseen, purchased five acres in this valley. So David and his wife Ramona got the opportunity to enjoy that parcel of land and with their kids would visit the property during weekends and whenever they had some time to engage in their favorite activities in the great outdoors; hunting, fishing, hiking and camping. When the time came, and they found themselves as empty nesters, their shared dream of living full time in this beautiful rural setting came to fruition.
It was not easy at first. Ramona commuted long distances to work while David shopped around locally for work in his field. It was not that long before an opening came up at the clinic then located on the corner of 5th and Rosita Street in downtown Westcliffe. The year was 1992, and that fledgling clinic then became the foundation of the professional organization which benefits the community today much like any of the clinics in larger metropolitan areas. In the thirty-two years of his loyal service David has seen the growth and development of the once rural clinic into the modern, service oriented institution now part of the Heart of the Rockies Medical Center based in Salida. Memories flood David as he recalls the early days when with very few employees each one had several roles to fill every day. The quintessential multitasker was arguably David who not only did all the chores of nursing practice but also the lab work, and, in addition to his expertise as a phlebotomist, charged with drawing all the blood samples of patients in the clinic and at community health fairs amd administered injections as needed. Much to his surprise, day one, he was asked to do a chest x-ray. After quickly being taught how to turn on the machine and aided by the copious notes left by the previous technician, it was through sheer determination that Dave learned how to use it. Later when the state required that x-ray technicians be licensed, David hit the books, self taught, and took the test and passed it the first time around.
More memories swept over David as he recalls the young ones who today walk into the clinic as adults. It is a wonderful feeling to have served many friends and neighbors and to have served them well. He recalls how the ambulance core grew from the time they used a pick-up truck to the state of the art operation it is today. Fondly, he remembers the incredible metamorphosis of the group of volunteers who made up the rescue teams that went into the Sangres to help those in need to the professional, well trained, well equipped team that makes up the Custer County Search and Rescue operations.
And so as David seems to be fading into the sunset, he really is not. That’s because he has one more facet to his persona. Yes, he may be fading into the sunset of his secular life but in truth he is walking toward the sunrise. As Pastor of Cody Park Community Church founded in 1988, Pastor David is free to specifically focus on the all-important task of tending to souls as his flock of forty parishioners depend on him for spiritual guidance. With the additional time on his hands David can grow his church community and give greater glory to God. We offer our very best wishes to David McConnell, soldier, medic and pastor on his walk towards the sunrise. May God bless you and your family always.