131. Winchester People And Places - Rev. Richard Merriman and Dr. Lowell Painter.

Rev. and Mrs. Richard Merriman.

  The public is invited to a community reception for the Rev. Richard Merriman, Sunday Jan. 8, at the Winchester Main Street Christian Church fellowship hall.
  Rev. Merriman and his wife, Ilene, will leave Winchester Jan. 16. Jan. 15 will be his last day in the pulpit here. He has accepted a pastorate at First Christian Church in Greensburg, Pa.
  The Main Street Christian Church, Christian Women's Fellowship is planning the reception.
  "This is more than a church reception. We want the community to come since he has been involved in so many community activities," said reception co-chairman Margaret Bunsold.
  In addition to inviting the public, the group is sending personal invitations to people associated with various agencies with which he has worked, including Planned Parenthood, the Mental Health Association, the Cancer Society, The Ministerial Association and others.
  Mrs. Bunsold said three ministers ordained under Rev. Merriman, the Rev. Greg Overmyer, Zionsville, the Rev. Jack Baldwin, Revena, Ky. and the Rev. Terry Nolier, Gas City, are also being invited.
  Rev. Merriman's involvement in community and philanthropic activities has been extensive, and he has helped start some programs here including Planned Parenthood and Alcoholics' Anonymous.
  Other groups with which he has been associated are the Dunn Comprehensive Mental Health board, Community and Family Services, Kiwanis Club, Randolph County Hospital Chaplain's Association, Winchester Chamber of Commerce, Band Aides and the Boy Scout Council.
  He has worked closely with the Randolph County Dept. of Public Welfare and with Susie Green, another Winchester resident involved in philanthropic activities.
  Mrs. Merriman has been a member of the Women's Club and eastern Star.
  "I pretty much stick to church, kids and school," she said.
  The Merrimans came here from Rushville in 1970, and their four children graduated from Winchester Community High School.
  "We've been very happy with the school here. We've been through the whole system from the first grade through high school," said Mrs. Merriman.
  Their son Richard, 27, is educational director for the Indiana Civic Art Association. Daughter Becky Gibbons, 26, works for Dr. Alan White in Lynn.
  Daughter Amory, 21, will graduate from Hanover College in May, and daughter Sarah, 20, is a junior at Eureka (Ill.) College.
  Amory will join her parents in Pennsylvania after graduation since she will continue studies in voice in Pittsburg.
 Born in Buhl, Idaho, Rev. Merriman graduated from Northwest Christian College in Eugene, Ore. He then held a three-year pastorate at Redmond, Ore., his wife's home town.
  He decided to do graduate work at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, and the couple moved to Rush County, Ind., where he took a pastorate at Flat Rock Christian Church. Later he held a pastorate at Main Street Christian Church in Rushville.
  Leaving Winchester and this pastorate is not easy for him. "It's a unique profession. You get so emotionally involved in people's lives," he said.
  Apparently his leaving is not easy for others as well. "We've been overwhelmed by people's reaction to our leaving. I had no idea we had so many friends, not only in the church but outside the church, too," he said.
  Mrs. Bunsold said no one has been chosen to succeed Rev. Merriman. She did indicate that an intern minister will serve the church until a replacement is found.   Winchester News-Gazette, Jan, 1984.



Dr. Lowell Painter.

  After more than 50 years of service to this community, Dr. Lowell W. Painter is taking in his shingle. Painter , who turns 77 this month, will retire Oct. 1. "I felt like this was the time to do it," he said of his reasons for retiring now.
  Apparently some of his patients disagree. Office nurse Olive Hudelson said she observed tears, dismay and a sense of "He can't do this" in some patients upon learning of his decision.
  Others have accepted the inevitable. Painter said many patients, some of whom are younger than he, have told him he deserves the rest and have wished him well.
  He is unsure how many patients he has treated over the years but says some of the babies he delivered are now grandparents.
  An Ohio native, Painter, whose father was a school superintendent, lived in several Indiana communities while growing up. He did undergraduate work at Earlham College and Indiana University School of Medicine in 1930.
  His service here began an 1931. He was still interning at Indianapolis City Hospital, now Wishard Hospital, when an acquaintance told him of several Indiana communities needing doctors. One of these communities was Winchester.
  "I came over and looked at the town and I liked it," he said. He and his wife Lillian, settled here after he finished his internship. "I've never been sorry," he added.
  Painter established his first office in the Davis Building arcade at the corner of South Main and East Franklin streets. In 1940 he had his present office built a little over a half block east of there on Franklin street.
  "I guess I made some of the boys mad, he learned several years later when someone told him neighborhood boys had used that particular lot to play basketball.
  Painter has watched the years bring a multitude of changes in medicine. but he said
  "We didn't have people who injected dye into veins and took X-ray pictures of arteries," he said of medicine when he began practicing. He also recalls the difficulty doctors had in treating diabetes before the use of insulin in the 1920's. People with the disease either went on extremely restrictive diets or simply face shortened life spans.
  Medical specialties in those days mainly included surgery, the treatment of eye, ear, nose and throat and general practice.
  His specialty was surgery, but he said, "Back in those days we did everything." His interest in orthopedics led him to develop a board on which to lay patients who had broken hips.
  Painter also enjoyed obstetrics and recalls the City Hospital maternity ward as a joyous place. "It's fun. Tragedy happens but it is unusual."
  He did give up his obstetrical cases a few years ago because they cut into his surgery schedule. "I found so many mothers who didn't schedule their babies very well," he explained.
  Although the advent of numerous specialties in recent years has led general practitioners to make more referrals to consultants, Painter sees little change in the basic doctor-patient relationship, especially in a rural community such as this. "People know their doctor. They come to him because they like him and have faith in him," he said.
  Painter's contributions to the community extend beyond treating patients. "The role of the doctor in the community is that he should be a citizen and help in that community," he commented.
  He was, in part responsible for establishing the Randolph County Hospital coronary care unit 14 years ago.
  He also carried on with plans a local minister had for establishing a nursing home here, after the minister left town. He said he and four other doctors involved in the project decided even if it offered no financial return, the project would give some of the community's elderly a place to live.
  In 1976 the Winchester Chamber of Commerce recognized Painter for outstanding community service. In 1981 Randolph County Hospital acknowledged his 50 years of service to the hospital and community.
  He also recalls enjoying doing research on carillons when the Winchester United Presbyterian Church was preparing to purchase one from funds a late member willed for that purpose.
  Painter's involvement in professional, civic and service organizations include memberships in the American Society of Abdominal Surgeons, The American Medical Association, the Indiana State Medical Association, the American Heart Association, Randolph County Medical Society, the American Cancer Society the Kiwanis Club and the YMCA.
   Painter speaks proudly and fondly of his family and says of Mrs. Painter, "She's a very faithful assistant." although she did not work in the office, she has handled countless calls to their home, often a hard chore. Painter also takes pride in his wife's participation in church and civic activities.
  The medical tradition lives on in the Painter family in their so, Robert. He is a chest and vascular surgeon in Connecticut and was recently invited to join the New England Surgical Association. "We are very proud of him," Painter says.
  Tragedy struck the family a few years ago when the Painter's 36-year-old daughter died suddenly of a cerebral aneurysm.
  Many have asked the doctor what he plans to do when he retires, to which he replies, "I'm going to find out."
  Although his plans are not specific, Painter says he enjoys many things, including reading and following I.U.'s Hoosiers he said. "Ever since 1923 I've been morally certain we're going to have a winning football team - next year."
  The Painters have always traveled and have especially enjoyed a resort the I.U. Alumni Association maintains in Wisconsin. "Don't go there," he advised, "You'll get hooked on it. It's like morphine. You can't get rid of it."
  Painter has no plans for the office space at this time but said, "If a new doctor wanted to come to town, its available."
  Those who have worked with Painter hold him in high regard. Mrs. Hudleson remarked. "He's the best employer in the world." She also works part time at the hospital and observed that she and other nurses have seldom, if ever, seen him angry. "He always has a smile for the nurses," she added.
  Reaction to his retirement may best be summed up by the words of Randolph County Hospital director of nursing, Jannalee Fraser, who said simply "He will be missed."    Winchester News-Gazette, Sept., 1983   By Kathy Welch.