Mike Mortimore is dedicated to the end.
An office telephone rang just after 5:30 p.m. the day before Mortimore, the health officer for the Berrien County Health Department, was set to retire.
“What time is it?” he asked. “I saw people leaving, but I didn’t realize it was so late!”
Mortimore has been with the health department for 38 years, and 21 of those he has spent at the head as the health officer.
In his time, he has helped foster the hiring of a grant writer, an epidemiologist — to study community health data — and a community health planner. More recently, he saw the health department move from the Pipestone Avenue location to Napier Avenue.
But what he is most proud of in his tenure is the way the community has come together to improve health as a whole.
“I think the thing that is so important for the field of public health, is the realization that as a department we can’t solve all of the issues of the public by ourselves. It takes partnerships,” he said. “One of the biggest things we have tried to do during my tenure is to develop a group [the Healthy Berrien Consortium], whose approach to health issues as a community. Working together as a community we have a much better chance.”
The consortium has been around for much of the past 20 years, with its strength in concerted group efforts instead of attempting to act as individual agencies, according to Mortimore.
Mortimore cited the attempts by the consortium to push for a smoke-free Berrien County, which resulted in the Berrien County Board of Commissioners passing smoking regulations in March 2007. By December 2009, the state of Michigan followed suit and passed similar legislation, creating a smoke-free state.
That collaborative spirit is how County Administrator Bill Wolf will remember Mortimore’s legacy.
“Mike has really been the institution over there [at the health department] for 30 years. He brought them all [the different health departments] together under one roof. He has been a pacesetter for health departments in the entire state. He will be sorely missed.”
Mortimore’s tenure officially ended at 11:59 p.m. Friday, Dec. 30.
Mortimore believes his successor, Nicki Britten, will continue to leverage the strength of the consortium, and is well equipped to take the reins.
Britten has worked for the health department for the past eight years as an epidemiologist, the director of community health planning and, most recently, as deputy health officer.
“I think she is perfectly qualified to step in,” he said. “I think you will see … a continuation of the good things the department has been able to do, and the public health issues we have been able to address.”