Remembering Peggy Fleming

A Friend to All

Amy Wisniewski first met Peggy Fleming while being interviewed for a Friends of Nursing award. She remembered her as “perfectly coiffed and dressed,” but only knew her as the quiet woman who helped start the Friends of Nursing program.

Several years later, Wisniewski, a telemedicine coordinator, placed an ad on Market Place in search of a good home for one of her chickens. “I received a ‘covert’ call and was told not to give this chicken to anyone—Peggy Fleming would give it a good home,” she says.

Wisniewski was surprised to see Peggy step out of her SUV in torn sweats and rubber boots. “She got the chicken, held it and told it that she had a coop for it with heat and light,” Wisniewski says. “She obviously cared about everybody’s feelings—even a chicken’s.”

Peggy passed away in June at age 86. She is remembered as a gentle, yet strong woman who embraced Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network—especially its nurses—just as she did her farm animals. She and her husband, Dick, an Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., executive (and a former chairman of Lehigh Valley Health Network’s board) created opportunities for clinicians to grow professionally and keep us at the forefront of health care.

It began 21 years ago when the Zionsville couple gave a donation to launch Friends of Nursing to support nursing education and research. Peggy was very involved, especially with the awards program. She woke early to complete her farm work so she could participate in day-long interviews. She held an annual luncheon for recipients that included special gifts and tours of the farm. Nursing, she said, “is not just giving medication and taking a temperature. It’s compassion beyond tasks.”

In 2001, Dick surprised Peggy by establishing the $1.5 million Peggy Fleming Endowed Chair of Nursing. “That’s our gift to Lehigh Valley Hospital—and that’s my gift to you, Peggy, my sweetheart, my wife and my best friend,” Dick said. It was the first endowment of its kind at a non-university U.S. hospital.

The Flemings, married for 63 years, also created endowments to support Lehigh Valley Hospice, the Fleming Trauma System and pain management. They gave a gift to purchase new isotactic radiosurgery equipment that made us one of the first community hospitals in the nation to offer the technology.

Yet it’s stories like those shared by Wisniewski that reflect the compassion Peggy showed those who crossed her path. “I’m sure God has a special place for a woman who would go to so much trouble for a chicken,” Wisniewski says.
 
—Sally Gilotti

ARTICLE TOOLS: