FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS
Westwood welcomes new administrator
BY KELLY GRIFFITH Contributing Writer

Tom Nance

Tom Nance was born and raised in Dallas though he now resides in Longview. Nance, the new administrator for the Westwood Nursing Home in Troup, makes the commute each morning and each evening to work with the people he's come to care for.

His journey to the long-term medical care field was also a long one.

Before college Nance enlisted in the Navy for three years. There he was a Flight Simulator Instructor as well as teaching swimming and evaluations. After the Navy he attended Baylor University for his first degree. At Baylor he majored in radio/television news, journalism and English.

"Upon graduation I went back into the Navy reserve as an officer," Nance said. "Then I got into hospital work."

Nance spent the next seven years doing marketing and public relations for a hospital in Arlington. Following his work in Arlington, Nance decided to take part in the administration aspect of hospitals. Nance enrolled in an off-campus program offered by a university in San Antonio to get his master's in Health Care Administration. After receiving his master's Nance took a job as administrator at Atlanta Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Texas.

"The board expected me to have to close the hospital because of so few patients," Nance said, "but I made more money in my seven years than the hospital made in its 15 years before I got there."

After leaving Atlanta, Nance made the change to the longterm care field.

Just prior to accepting the job in Troup, Nance worked as administrator in Tyler.

"I like East Texas," Nance said. He also enjoys getting to know the elderly people he works so hard to care for.

"By the time I was born both of my grandfathers had passed away," Nance said. "By the time I was three, so had my grandmothers. I see all of these people as my grandparents and enjoy hearing their stories."

Nance has grandchildren of his own; James, Audra and Nathan belong to son Robert and daughter-in-law April. Another granddaughter, Ginny, who just celebrated her first birthday, belongs to Nance's daughter Sara and her husband, Jacob. In his time not spent at Westwood, Nance enjoys participating in the Longview Amateur Radio Club as an amateur radio operator.