LINGENFELTER, Dr. John Graham

Kingman Daily Miner, Kingman, AZ - Published on April 16, 2012 - Dr. John Graham Lingenfelter passed away at the Joan and Diana Hospice Home on Thursday, April 12, 2012, at the age of 83. He, his wife Diana and family settled in Kingman in 1961, where he began his medical practice. He was known for his love and passion for his family, community, state and country. His wife, Diana Ruth Lingenfelter, preceded his death on Jan. 13, 2011, and he is survived by their four children, Fred B. (Jensine) Lingenfelter, Sandra L. (Daniel) Terry, Susan L. Collins, Sara L. (Ben) Overson, 11 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. A viewing will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, April 19, at the Sutton Memorial Funeral Home, 1701 Sycamore Ave., Kingman. A celebration of life service will be held at 1 p.m., Friday, April 20, at St. Johns United Methodist Church, 1730 Kino Ave., with a reception following the service in the St. Johns fellowship hall. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Joan and Diana Hospice Home, Attention: Jamie Taylor, 3269 Stockton Hill Road, Kingman, AZ 86409. The family would like to express their appreciation to the staff at Kingman Regional Medical Center, Flagstaff Medical Center, and the Joan and Diana Hospice Home for the kindness and great care during this difficult time. _____________________________________ Kingman Daily Miner, Kingman, AZ - Published on April 15, 2012 - Kingman Mourns Loss of Philanthropist John Lingenfelter leaves behind a trail of good deeds Suzanne Adams Miner Staff Reporter KINGMAN - A large number of Kingman and Mohave County residents are mourning the loss of one of the community's most generous benefactors. Dr. John Lingenfelter passed away Thursday at the Joan and Diana Hospice House, one of the many projects in the community he helped to finance. The viewing will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, April 19, at Sutton Memorial Funeral Home, 1701 Sycamore Ave. A memorial is planned for 1 p.m. on Friday, April 20, at St. John's United Methodist Church, 1730 Kino Ave. Creative Care Marketing Director John Kirby said Lingenfelter fell ill about a week and a half ago. He was moved from Kingman Regional Medical Center to the hospice home on Monday. "We're all (at the various nursing care facilities owned by Lingenfelter) missing him very much," Kirby said. "He was here every day. He would come in early for breakfast and spend the whole day at care facilities. He would wander in and out of all of our offices and sit and chat with us, checking up on the various projects we were working on." "I was very fortunate to work with him and it was a great privilege to work with him," Kirby said. Lingenfelter grew up on an Iowa farm, graduated from East High School in Des Moines and joined the U.S. Army with his classmates. After being discharged from the military, he attended and graduated with a degree in agronomy from Iowa State College. While in college he met Diana Johanssen. The two married after he graduated from college and moved onto the family farm. Two years later and after their first child, Fred, Lingenfelter decided he wanted to become a doctor. He and his family worked to get him through pre-med school at Drake University and then medical school at the Iowa School of Medicine. After graduating in 1960, he and the family, now with two children in tow, moved to Phoenix for his internship at Good Sam Hospital. Sandy, the couple's second child, was born while Lingenfelter was in med school. Susan, the couple's third child, was born just before the family moved to Kingman in 1961. "He was always a family man and I think it surprised his family and friends when he didn't return to Iowa," his daughter, Sandy Terry, said. He liked Arizona and wanted to take a chance at making a life here. During his time off, he and Diana would travel around the state looking for an area to settle in. They chose Kingman because they liked the climate, the Hualapai Mountains and the community, she said. Life in Kingman kept Lingenfelter very busy. He was one of only three doctors in the county and delivered numerous babies, including his fourth child, Sara. When the doctors at Mohave General Hospital realized they needed someone who could provide anesthesia, Lingenfelter traveled to Phoenix for training and added that skill to his medical resume. He also served at various times as the hospital's chief of staff, chief of anesthesia and ER chief. Terry and her brother, Fred Lingenfelter, remember going on rounds with him at the hospital. Fred even remembers getting to watch some operations and procedures. Lingenfelter's other two children, Susan Collins and Sara Overson, were not available Friday afternoon. A number of his stories about his 35 years of work as a county doctor can be found in his book "Happenings," which was published last year and illustrated by his friend and artist, Fred Lucas. One short story tells about the time he was filling in for the local vet and almost treated a pet skunk. His book can be found at the Lingenfelter Center on Sunrise Avenue off of Western Avenue. Terry said Virginia Long, who was Lingenfelter's secretary for a number of years, once told her that he would occasionally have her clear the account for his patients who couldn't pay. He also served at various times as the county physician, the county health director and the county medical examiner for 16 years. During that time he reorganized the County Health Services Department, created a county pharmacy and started the Mohave Mental Health Clinic among other things. Lingenfelter's medical building boom continued in 1982, when he and a number of local doctors founded a company, which offered services to patients who had signed up for the new Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System. He also founded and owned Arizona Health Concepts and was a part owner of Ventana Health Systems, which is now Evercare, part of Arizona's Medicaid system. Lingenfelter also served more than 20 years on the Mohave County Hospital District Board. "He was a very great man, very community oriented and supportive of the hospital," said Brian Turney, CEO of Kingman Regional Medical Center. "He wasn't afraid to share his opinion on something, but at the same time he was open to any ideas." Turney remembers one time during the early years of the hospital's evolution from a county-run facility to a private non-profit facility, the board was trying to decide how to pay for landscaping around an area of the hospital it had just expanded. The board decided to let Turney do the design and was having a hard time convincing Lingenfelter. "He really wanted us to hire a professional," Turney said. "We finally convinced him and when it was finished, he looked around and told me, 'Not bad.' After that, every time we had a new project that required landscaping, Doc would say, 'Don't worry about it. We'll just have Brian do it.'" "He was very generous to the hospital," Turney said. "He'll be missed." Lingenfelter donated more than just his time and medical expertise to the hospital. The Lingenfelter and the Becker families donated more than $1 million and a plot of land to build the Joan and Diana Hospice Home, which opened in 2010, he said. "He always had an idea of how to make the community or the hospital better," Turney said. According to his friends and family, Lingenfelter was always coming up with ideas. Cornerstone Mission President Lisa Beauchamp, said Lingenfelter would pop into her office when she was working for Crystal Burge, usually around the busiest time of day and say, "I've got an idea!" And off the two of them would go in his car to see his idea. "He was a visionary. He would get so excited about all of his ideas," she said. "My brother used to say he had 365 ideas a year and maybe only one of them was a good one," Terry said. "He would get an idea and just go with it." He would write them down in a little notebook that he kept in his front shirt pocket or on a tongue depressor when he was on his rounds, she said. He was more worried about losing his notes than his wallet. One of his ideas was figuring out a better way to care for the elderly residents of the community. Terry said she remembered going on rounds with him in the original nursing home in Kingman and how much he disliked the institutional feeling of nursing homes, which is why he founded a series of care facilities starting in 1998, including the Gardens Rehab and Care Center, the Lingenfelter Center (2002), Helen's Place Assisted Living (2002), the Legacy Rehab and Care Center (2005) in Kingman and the River Gardens Care Center (2005) in Bullhead City. He also held shares in the Gardens Assisted Living and donated land for the Amy Neal Retirement Center. "He always wanted to give people the best quality care, so they could spend their last days in a dignified manner," Terry said. "It was always something he wanted to do." The Lingenfelter care groups are well known for their patient care. The group consistently earns high marks from the state. Lingenfelter and his wife didn't let his long hours as a doctor stop them from being active in the community. Both Lingenfelter and his wife were active members at the United Methodist Church for more than 40 years. He donated land for three different church organizations and for the expansion of Cornerstone Mission. In the mid-1970s, Lingenfelter had another idea and helped create the Kingman High School Bulldog Boosters club. He was elected club president in 1977. Then he was elected to the Kingman High School Board in 1978 and served on it for eight years. In 1981, Lingenfelter and a group of Kingman residents founded Stockman's Bank. He served on the bank's board of directors until it was sold in 2007 to National Bank of Arizona. Terry and Fred said despite their dad's busy schedule both in and out of the hospital, he always made time for his family. "He was always busy, but he always made time to make it to our games in high school," Fred said. "We always ate dinner around the table," Terry said. "Any time he had with us was good, quality time." "He never yelled at us, never complained about his work and never had a bad word about anyone. He might have a funny story about someone," Terry said. "And he could always take a joke and dish one right back," Fred said. "He also always found a way to get out of doing the dishes. He always seemed to get a call from the hospital around that time." The family later found out that Lingenfelter had an accomplice at the hospital who would call just when dinner was ending. "He was one of the greatest men I've ever known in Kingman," said former Mohave County Supervisor Pete Byers. "He was always Johnny-on-the-spot with an idea. It's a very sad day for Kingman." "When I left office, he decided that I didn't need to retire. He told me he would build me a real estate office anywhere I wanted with everything I would need to run it," Byers said. "I told him, 'I love you, but I'm not going to work like that.' He told me, 'Think about it for a few months and then come talk to me.' That's just the kind of guy he was." Byers never did take Lingenfelter up on his offer. Lingenfelter never really retired. He was too full of ideas. He always described himself as "semi-retired." During his "retirement," he built a residential subdivision, The Ranch, at Long Mountain on Route 66. He also donated land in 2009 to Mohave Community College for a nursing school, half a block from his care centers on Chicago Avenue. In 2010, he teamed up with one of his old hospital buddies, Dr. Edwin Goertz, to create a high potency, easy-on-the-stomach, vitamin C tablet, known as Doctor C. When Cornerstone Mission fell on hard times in 2010 and was in danger of closing its doors, Lingenfelter donated two parcels of land for a fundraising raffle. The fundraiser brought in around $30,000, according to Beauchamp. "It got us back on track. He also gave us lots of fundraising ideas," she said. Last year, Lingenfelter purchased and turned over the keys to a house to the mission for a women and children's shelter. The shelter, Diana's Faith House, opened recently and was named after his wife. "He was a really wonderful man and very supportive of the community. He did so much for us," Beauchamp said. "He was so excited to hear about the first family that would be staying in Diana's Faith House. He was like a little boy." Lingenfelter was recently working on getting a national recognition for a rock formation near Coyote Pass that he called "Abe at Rest" because it looked like the profile of Abraham Lincoln lying on his back. Fred Lucas even created a painting of the site. Prints of the painting hang in Lingenfelter's office at the Lingenfelter Center, at the Mohave Museum of History and Art and one has been donated to the state. The family is trying to get another copy donated to the federal government. He also initiated and donated the painting "Wonders of Mohave County" to the museum. At the same time, Lingenfelter was working on a plan to secure the U.S. border with Mexico. When Terry asked him if he thought the plan would work he told her it would be a shame if he didn't at least try. One of his last acts of generosity was offering more than 200 acres to the county for a new fairgrounds. "The community has always been good to us. It was like a part of our extended family," Terry said. "It was good to him too and he wanted to give back to it. He always loved Kingman."