By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
Guided for the last 90 years by one of the most sacred of Jewish commandments, “To honor thy father and mother,” The Kline Galland Center in Seattle is at the top of its game and has become a model institution around the world, known for its high level of compassionate care and the many lifestyle options it offers to its aging residents.
From its humble beginnings in 1914, the first Kline Galland Home was a two-story residence located in the Seward Park neighborhood of Seattle, purchased for $22,000 and in need of renovation just to accommodate its first seven residents.
From the start, the fledgling home for the aged was relentlessly nurtured and diligently administered into its current configuration 90 years later as the Kline Galland Center.
Today, the center includes a new KGH building that was constructed in 1967 and expanded twice to house its current capacity of 205 residents. The Summit at First Hill, a 24-hour, 13-story, state-of-the-art independent and assisted living facility opened in 2000.
“The original home was a big wooden firetrap where the nurses had to go around every hour and check for fire,” said Arva Gray, who joined the KGC board in the late 1950s and served for 45 years. Gray was the first woman to serve as a board president and held that office during the construction of The Summit.
“It’s great to see this big, beautiful building,” added Gray, in appreciation of the facility that took 16 years to plan and build, and required a $27 million bond issue.
“We all just had a feeling for humanity, that the aged shouldn’t have to share bathrooms and that their rooms should lookout onto something that’s quite pleasant,” she said.
In 1977, the KGH started the first SPICE program ever located in a nursing home. Senior Prevention, Intervention, Counseling Education helps older adults and their caregivers cope with substance abuse or mismanagement of medications.
In 1980, The Polack Adult Day Center opened. It now operates from within the KGH for four days a week, serving the socialization needs of the elderly and the respite needs of their families.
In 1985, a Kosher Meals-on-Wheels program began, and now serves over 900 meals monthly to the elderly in their homes.
When she died in 1907, one of the final wishes of Caroline Rosenberg Kline Galland was that $1.5 million from her estate would go to the community’s aged to bring them “the greatest degree of contentment and happiness in their declining years.”
Galland, born Carolyn Rosenberg in Bavaria, Germany in 1835, had married twice to successful businessmen. Her first husband, Louis Kline, was a partner in the clothing firm of Kline and Rosenberg of Seattle. Bonham Galland was a retired merchant from San Francisco.
She had no children from either marriage and chose instead to devote her time and money to philanthropy. Setting aside the majority of her estate to the establishment of a home for the Jewish aged, her vision was articulated with great clarity and foresight. It should be a home, wrote Galland, for those “who are in harmony for religious creeds”.
Galland took great care to make sure that none of her relatives would contest her wishes by stipulating in her will that anyone who would do so would have the cost of those proceedings deducted from their portion of their inheritance.
It was that kind of shrewd planning that made her dream a reality.
In the competitive and fluctuating economies of the 21st century, it will be those same skills that keep the Kline Galland Center the model of continuity of care that it has become.
“We’ve tried to change the stereotype of being old and in a nursing home,” said Joshua Gortler, executive director of the Kline Galland Center since 1969. “We’ve tried to create a vision and a network of services. We’ve created a home without walls.”
The Summit features 102 retirement apartments and 24 assisted living units. Residents enjoy a spa, wellness program, exercise room, library, synagogue, recreational and educational activities and kosher food.
Gortler has organized the Kline Galland Center on three principles that he says are his bottom line – care, compassion and quality. He hires the most committed staff and dedicated volunteers he can find, and provides them with lots of incentives and rewards.
Just about anyone who has been involved with the success of KGH credits Gortler for the outstanding reputation of the center. It is his leadership skills and management style that have inspired years of dedicated service from board members like Tom Leavitt.
“The Kline Galland is Josh,” said Leavitt, who replaced his father on the KGH board in the late 1970s. “He has dedicated his life to the Center. He is regarded as one of the leading voices and minds in the field. It started with a few people and now this is where the Jewish community in the region comes.”
Leavitt, whose mother is a resident of KGH, was chair of the board in the 1990s when The Summit was being built.
“The reviews we get from the state agencies are a long and wonderful record,” said Leavitt. “Josh Gortler is without question one of the most remarkable human beings I’ve ever had the honor of knowing.”
Mike Cohen, former president of the KGH board and a board member since 1980, agrees wholeheartedly.
“Josh Gortler is one of the premier eldercare leaders in the United States,” said Cohen. “His role as a teacher and a leader is absolutely astounding to us. This community is blessed to have him.”
Gortler’s vision for the future of the KGC does not include expanding the facilities, as in past decades, but it is one where services will be expanded within existing facilities to meet the changing lifestyles of the elderly.
“The nursing homes of the future will be a clinic-type of approach,” said Gortler. “There will be more outpatient rehabilitation and therapists bringing the care into the home.”