Fueling the front lines for 60 years—and counting | Health Beat

Ollie Robinson likes to remain busy.

That’s why he will get up at 2:30 a.m. 5 days per week for the early morning shift within the kitchen at Corewell Well being Butterworth Hospital.

He wraps up his work by early afternoon, leaving time for feeding the birds and squirrels, fixing stuff round the home or hanging together with his children or his dozens of grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. And he may make time for a nap.

Till the clock strikes 9:30 p.m. or so, which is when he units the alarm after which does it another time.

For 60 years—60!—Robinson has been stuffing hen breasts, prepping soups and mixing up macaroni and cheese for the sufferers and crew members at Butterworth Hospital. And at 84, he’s not planning to hold up his apron anytime quickly.

“Yearly, I say this yr is my final yr,” he chuckled. “However numerous my mates who’re retired appear to be they’re bored. They go to malls and stroll round in a circle.”

That’s not Robinson.

“I wish to fill the day in after which get to the subsequent day,” he mentioned. “I might inform anyone that you must keep lively. You may’t simply sit down.”

So far as the human assets crew at Corewell Well being West can inform, Robinson has been a full-time worker longer than anybody else. Ever. So lengthy, in truth, that there was no anniversary card to mirror the milestone. They needed to make a brand new one.

Throughout one among his latest morning shifts, a handful of Corewell Well being executives stopped by the kitchen to shock Robinson with doughnuts, punch and loads of kudos. They estimated that he has helped make about 4.5 million meals for workers, sufferers and guests.

“We’re so glad you’ve gotten been with us for 60 years,” mentioned Tina Freese Decker, Corewell Well being President & CEO, as she offered him with a Corewell Well being vest and a brand new chef’s coat. “You might be a part of our story and a part of our household.”

When Robinson first set foot within the Butterworth Hospital kitchen, microwave ovens and workplace computer systems had been new expertise, she identified. Butterworth Hospital had not too long ago carried out its first open-heart surgical procedure and Congress was debating the deserves of a brand new program known as Medicare.

Robinson, who admitted to being “a bit overwhelmed” with all the eye, additionally acquired a framed phrase cloud that featured lots of the sentiments his coworkers use to explain him: mentor, humble, inspiring, devoted.

“He places his coronary heart and soul into his job every single day as a result of he understands the worth of the meals he’s getting ready and who’s receiving it,” mentioned Kevin Vos, vice chairman of environmental providers at Corewell Well being West.

Vos wasn’t even alive when Robinson labored his first shift on Dec. 13, 1962.

Again then, there have been about 14 cooks, 1,000 crew members and 300 to 500 inpatients at Butterworth Hospital every day. Against this, Butterworth Hospital now has not less than 50 culinary professionals getting ready breakfast, lunch and dinner for, on common, 900 inpatients each day.

Together with the expansion of the hospital and adjoining buildings, the workforce additionally has expanded considerably, to about 6,000 individuals on any given day, though there may be additionally a close-by meals court docket and different eating choices.

“I’ve watched this place remodel a lot over time,” Robinson mentioned.

Years in the past, workers within the kitchen peeled potatoes and carrots by hand, baked desserts and cookies from scratch and minimize bacon from large slabs. Distributors delivered crates of uncooked greens, eggs and different entire meals. All the pieces was produced from scratch.

“We used to put out our personal hamburger patties. They didn’t have companies like Gordon Meals Service delivering ready meals,” he mentioned.

Ten years into his tenure, Robinson was tapped to take over as head chef, a job he held till 2002.

Because the years sped by, he started to appreciate the job was about a complete lot greater than his famend macaroni and cheese.

“Within the previous kitchen I might look out the home windows and see the morgue. As I grew into this job, I began to surprise, ‘How was this particular person’s final meal? How did we deal with them right here?’” he mentioned.

Then his daughter, Kimberly, one among 5 youngsters, died of a mind hemorrhage in 2010.

“The sky sorta fell in,” he mentioned. Nevertheless it additionally helped him higher empathize with sufferers, guests and care suppliers.

“It was arduous watching them take her off life help. She was 52. However now at any time when I hear ‘Code Blue’ or ‘We’d like a bereavement basket,’ I do know precisely what these persons are going by means of,” he mentioned.

So Robinson retains at it, donning his black cranium cap and chef’s coat most weekday mornings and each different weekend. He nonetheless enjoys the power of the kitchen and the friendships he has made alongside the way in which.

“I assume I’m only a workaholic,” he mentioned, acknowledging that he educated and, for many years, labored alongside fairly a number of people who find themselves now retired. “If you happen to hold working, you don’t understand the idea of age. You by no means miss a beat.”