Upstate Medical University, the region’s largest employer, honored more than 1,200 employees, including three who were applauded for their half-century of service to Upstate—Barbara McGinley, RN; Susan Putnam, RN; Leonard Weiner, MD—at the University’s 39^th annual Employee Recognition Day (ERD) event, held Thursday at the Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center at Oncenter Complex.

The event honored employees who have reached a 5-year service milestone as of June 30, but three among the crowd stood out for celebrating 50 years of service.

Barbara McGinley, RN

Barbara McGinley came to an open house at Community General as a pre-teen and remembers thinking how much she wanted to work there. Nine years later she applied for a job as an LPN and her first job was on the postpartum unit. In her time at Upstate she floated to other units including med-surg, respiratory and one-day surgery.

McGinley said her favorite memory from her 50 years at Upstate is working on the 6^th floor rehab and extended care unit with the nursing home unit on the west side. 

“We had close relationships with the patients and their families,” she said. “Happy hour and live entertainment and our patients were truly happy.”

She said the biggest change for her has been the nurse's uniforms and scrubs, from white stockings, nurse's shoes, caps, white skirts, blouses and dress uniforms with nurse's caps to comfortable scrubs and sneakers.

Community General paid for her courses to continue her career as an RN. She is grateful for that opportunity as well as for the camaraderie.

“It was like family, Halloween party at the Hotel Syracuse in the main ballroom, midnight bowling that included nurses, environmental services, lab and IV personnel, also including plant operations,” she said. “April 1^st always got people making jokes with fake patients with an unrealistic diagnosis and multiple orders and treatments.”

Susan Putnam, RN, Patient Testing Center

Susan Putman’s career at Upstate began when she was a student at Corcoran High School. Her first job was as a tray girl at Community Hospital, delivering meals to patients.

Over the course of the next 50 years, she would work eight different jobs, from the payroll department to the operating room.

“It was in one facility, but I had many different experiences,” Putnam said.

After high school, she took a job in the business office as a payroll clerk while eventually going to school for her LPN at night and then for her RN degree. From there she worked in the OR, ED, surgical floors, infection control, the surgery center, and finally in pre-admission testing as clinical leader. Though she retired in 2021, Putnam still works per diem in pre-admission testing.

“Doesn’t seem like 50 years,” she said. “Community and then Upstate afforded me a lot of flexibility in my time and hours and has given me a lot of opportunities which I am thankful for.”

Putnam did leave Upstate briefly after the birth of her first child but did not have that flexibility afforded by Community so she soon returned as a float nurse.

“I have very much enjoyed my career here,” she said. “The best part about it is I really felt like working here is like family. The people have always been very accommodating, very friendly, and very caring. I do like the care that’s given here. It has been a great place to work.”

 Leonard Weiner, MD

When Leonard Weiner was invited to Upstate in 1972 by the new chair of pediatrics, Frank A. Oski, MD, he told Oski he would stay five to 10 years tops.

He and Oski had worked together in Philadelphia and Oski pegged Weiner to be the division chief for pediatric infectious disease.

“It was kind of a misnomer because I was the only pediatric infectious disease person at that time,” Weiner said.

While Oski left about 14 years later, Weiner stayed and built a division and his own career as an expert in the field. He started an accredited fellowship program, hired more faculty members, and began a research program. Now the division includes more than 20 people, including five faculty members, clinical research associates, research nurses and nurse practitioners. Its fellowship program is one of the longest continuing programs at Upstate.

Now, Weiner is a Distinguished Service Professor of Pediatrics, professor of Pathology and Family Medicine, division director of Infectious Disease and Immunology, director of the Pediatric and Adolescent Infectious Disease/Immunology Center and of the Pediatric and Adolescent Designated HIV Center.

“I had some accomplishments that were important for the institution and rewarding both to myself and the department of pediatrics, so I said I am not going to find anything better anywhere else,” Weiner said. “It’s a great place to work.”

Weiner said the challenges change day to day, and he never knows what might come along—such as helping to develop a pediatric COVID vaccine.

“Who would have known in 2019 that I was going to spend the next three years, along with my colleagues, working on a vaccine for a disease we had never heard of?” he said. “We are going to need new COVID vaccines and now we have new vaccine methodologies with MRNA so we can apply that to other pediatric illnesses. We have a big problem with RSV and influenza. You never know what the next challenge will be, but I am still up for it.”

Weiner doesn’t regret his decision to remain at Upstate.

I’ve been here a long time, but I wake up every day looking forward to coming to work,” Weiner said, “never thinking that I made the wrong decision by staying.”

To view the listing of the 2023 honorees by years of service, go to: https://www.upstate.edu/erd/

Caption: Celebrating 50 years of service at Upstate are, from left, Susan Putnam, RN, Barbara McGinley, RN, and Leonard Weiner, MD