Sister Dorothy Thum’s training in service began young, at a place that has long since stopped existing outside her memories.
It was at the White Baking Company in Dayton that she watched the rise and fall — the breathing, almost — of the bread loaves baked by her father, a Boy Scout leader in a family without Boy Scouts, who delivered the bread himself to customers’ homes.
That upbringing — plus, as she likes to joke, the fact that she likes to eat — eventually inspired Sister Dorothy to pursue a career as a dietitian. She bit off a bit more than she expected to chew: On Thursday, after 40 years of service, Sister Dorothy will retire from her position as vice president of mission for Mercy Health.
“To tell you the truth, I’m very happy, very pleased, with how the ministry has developed,” said Sister Dorothy.
Sister Dorothy has undertaken too many initiatives at Mercy Health to single out any particular one as her proudest achievement. She is especially satisfied, though, with how she established the mobile health program, the palliative care program and the Senior Wellness Center at Warren AME Church.
“Collaboration is so essential,” she said. “When we help seniors, they help their families, and they help their grandkids” — who then, ideally, will grow up to help others, thus ensuring that the cycle of services continues uninterrupted.
Prior to her current role, Sister Dorothy served as the dietary director at Mercy Hospital in Cincinnati and at St. Charles Hospital. She currently serves on the boards of Avenues for Autism, CareNet, and the Central City Ministries of Toledo Advisory Board.
When she interviewed job candidates, Sister Dorothy always asked a simple question: “What is your understanding of service?”
“The answer to that question was key to working in our health care ministry,” she said. “It has to be more than a job. It’s a calling.”
Sister Dorothy, of course, has her own understanding of service: “Helping others and listening to what is important to them, and responding appropriately and to be able to do it in a compassionate way.”
Listening is key for her — whether it’s to business partners, the homeless, or children. She recalls working with a few schools to develop a plan for a health fair. At some point they stopped and asked, “Why don’t we ask the children what they want?” That, she thought, turned out to be “one of the wisest decisions we ever made.” The health fair dreamed up by the children differed substantially from the one planned by health care professionals, but it was also more rooted in family and community.
Sister Dorothy has received the Dorie Steinmetz Memorial Community Service Award from the East Toledo Family Center, the Sister Dorothy Nussbaum Volunteer Award from Aurora Project, the YWCA Milestones Award, and the Healthcare Heroes Award.
She’s confident that retirement won’t signal the end of her service. It’s simply the beginning of a new chapter, this one in the role of what she calls “mission ambassador.” She’ll be keeping an ear close to the ground.
“I always go back to my faith,” she said. “Realizing that God journeys with us and calls us to what is good for us, and calls us to serve others.”
First Published March 27, 2022, 3:30 p.m.
