Celebrating 70 years of changing lives

During a 2014 interview, the late Bob Nash was asked about his father and the community mental health center that bears his name.

“I like to think about all of the lives that have been changed because of my father’s work,” Bob Nash said. “That’s what I think of when I see Bert Nash.”

Bob Nash’s father, Dr. Bert Nash, collapsed while giving a presentation February 18, 1947, at a Lions Club meeting at the Eldridge Hotel in downtown Lawrence. He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and never regained consciousness. He was 48 when he died.

Three years after Dr. Nash’s untimely death, community leaders established the Bert Nash Mental Health Clinic, as it was called then, as a “living memorial” to continue the work the distinguished University of Kansas educational psychologist had started.

That work has been carried on at the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center for nearly 70 years. The Center will celebrate its 70th birthday on July 5th.

“Thousands of lives have been helped and changed over the past 70 years because of the vision Dr. Nash had for providing behavioral health services to the residents of Douglas County,” said Patrick Schmitz, Bert Nash Center CEO. “We are proud to carry on that work and we are proud of our community that it saw fit to dedicate a mental health center in Dr. Nash’s name.”

Bert and Ruth Nash had two children, Barbara and Bob. The children were teenagers when their father died. Ruth Nash never remarried and lived in the same house until her death in 1975.

During his short-lived but ascending career, Dr. Nash made a name for himself as a tireless advocate for improved mental health services for children.

 “In the year before his death, he made more than 200 presentations to Rotary Clubs, to schools, to city councils, to whatever, across the state,” Bob Nash said in the 2014 interview.

Bob Nash died in 2016. His sister, Barbara Nash, lives in California. The siblings were honored with a Pioneer Award at the annual Bert Nash Center Pioneer Celebration in 2010, along with the Menninger family of the Menninger Clinic in Topeka and the families of Sandra Shaw and her husband, Doug Witt. Sandra was a longtime CEO of the Bert Nash Center and Doug was a longtime clinical director. Together, the couple spent nearly 60 years working in various roles at the Center. During their tenure, the Bert Nash Center experienced tremendous growth, going from fewer than 10 employees to almost 180.

“The Bert Nash Center is fortunate to have had such outstanding leadership throughout its history and I want to thank and recognize all those who came before,” CEO Patrick Schmitz said. “They helped to grow and shape the Center into what it is today —a leading mental health provider that has been recognized across the state and even nationally.” 

As an essential healthcare provider, the Bert Nash Center remains open during the pandemic, delivering critical mental health services virtually and in-person when needed.

“In my nearly 30 years of being in this field, I’ve never seen a team come together like this,” Schmitz said. “I am humbled by the work they all are doing. I am so grateful to be part of the Bert Nash Center team and to work alongside them during this time. At the end of this, whenever that is, we will end up being proud of the way we have handled things. I believe Dr. Nash would be proud, too."