Altru Achievement Awards
Carma Hanson is the coordinator of Safe Kids Grand Forks. Her tireless dedication to the program has kept children safe through increased community knowledge and awareness of wheeled sports, child passenger, farm, fire, pedestrian and water safety. One of the most visible programs in the Greater Grand Forks area are monthly car seat check-ups, which ensure proper installation and use of car seats. Hanson’s leadership, passion and determination have been recognized on local, regional and national levels.
Marlys Pester is the activities coordinator at Parkwood Senior Living. She is known for the positive attitude she brings to work every day. Her enthusiasm for the residents is displayed through the activities she plans for them, including monthly bluegrass sessions, bingo, resident parades, educational presentations, exercise classes, crafts, baking and jelly-making sessions and more. Most recently, flower beds were built for the Parkwood residents so they could plant flowers and vegetables. Pester makes Parkwood a place families can call home.
Robert M. Jacobson Lifetime Achievement Award
Dr. John Lambie graduated from Central High school in Grand Forks in 1946. He spent the next two years at the University of North Dakota before transferring to North Dakota State University where he earned a degree in agriculture. He then entered the Air National Guard, before returning to Grand Forks to farm. He went back to school at UND to pursue a degree in medicine before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania, where he specialized in internal medicine, graduating in 1958. He interned at Pennsylvania Hospital and completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Michigan.
In 1962, Dr. Bob Painter encouraged Dr. Lambie to return to Grand Forks to join him at the Grand Forks Clinic, and he did. Drs. Painter and Lambie worked with 18 other physicians to contribute a quarter of a million dollars of their own money to purchase the property that would be Medical Park. The physicians then donated the land to the hospital and sold the remaining parcels, at their cost, to other providers who located their facilities on Medical Park.
During his years practicing medicine, Dr. Lambie credits the introduction and use of intensive care units and cardiac monitoring as two of the most significant medical innovations still in use today. In 1979 he witnessed the first total body CT scanner become operational at United Hospital.
Through all the advances in medicine, Dr. Lambie continued to practice with the same goal in mind – always do your best for your patients.
