Chapter Exec Fulfilled Commitment to Give Back to Family Medicine
April 23, 2025, David Mitchell — Gerry Stover found himself, quite literally, in a bad place in the spring of 1984.
Family medicine helped him get through that dark time, and he has spent most of his professional career repaying that kindness.
“I worked in the barracks with inmates, and I had a radio,” said Stover, who is retiring this year after more than two decades as the executive vice president of both the Kentucky and West Virginia Academies of Family Physicians. “If they grabbed me and tried to kill me, I could push a button. I had to call in every hour to let the lieutenant know I was still alive. That was my work environment as a prison guard. It wasn’t the type of work I was looking for as a college graduate, but it helped with health insurance.”
Stover is a Marshall University graduate and former U.S. Marine. Upon leaving the service, he enrolled in graduate school and took a job with the Veterans Administration, but a technicality prevented him from qualifying for GI benefits. That was a problem when Stover’s wife, Lynn, became pregnant. At that time, private insurance plans could exclude pregnancy from coverage as a “pre-existing condition,” but federal employee insurance plans did not. So, Stover became a corrections officer at the Federal Correctional Institution in Ashland, Kentucky.
The Stovers’ daughter, Virginia, was born in October of 1983. She had dwarfism, endured multiple surgeries and spent most of her short life in a West Virginia hospital before her death the following April.
Gerry Stover, center, pauses for a photo with West Virginia AFP President Matthew Davis, D.O., and chapter executive assistant Trina Litton as he is inducted into the West Virginia Executive Health Care Hall of Fame.
“My wife stayed with her during the day, and when I got off work I would go and stay with the baby,” Stover said. “I would get like four hours sleep. The family medicine residents from Marshall were in their NICU rotations, and they were always encouraging me.
“Subspecialists, bless their heart, look at an organ, and they’re focused on that organ. Whereas in family medicine the concept is that you need to dive a little deeper into some of the emotional aspects. ‘Here’s a baby with dwarfism. I know what the chart says, but who are the parents?’ They spent the time and got to know us.”
Insurance didn’t completely cover the family’s extensive hospital bills, so residents, faculty and staff of the medical school raised money to help pay for the child’s funeral and other expenses.
“When our daughter died,” Stover said, “we made a commitment that we were going to do our best to give back.”
One resident who helped deliver the baby, Linda Savory, M.D., and another resident who cared for Lynn and Virginia, Sandra Joseph, M.D., were longtime West Virginia AFP members when Stover served as chapter executive.
But first, he had to leave the prison job behind. Stover got his chance when he accepted a role as an assistant administrator for business affairs in Marshall’s health system. That job put him in close contact with Robert Walker, M.D., a professor and later chair of the Department of Family and Community Health, who played a pivotal role in Stover’s development as a health care leader.
First, Walker appointed him as an assistant professor in family medicine. Stover taught a class on practice administration, allowing him to receive a tuition waiver from Marshall so he could pursue a master’s degree in information systems.
Walker later recruited Stover to serve as executive director of Lincoln County Primary Care, a role he held for a decade in Hamlin, West Virginia. During that time, Marshall started a rural family medicine residency program based in Lincoln County Primary Care. Stover’s other highlights there included helping start (and serving as an officer in) the county’s economic development authority; seeing the organization receive a Partnership Effort for the Advancement of Children’s Health grant; his work to upgrade facilities; opening a school-based clinic; and publication of an article that Walker, Savory and Stover authored in Academic Medicine that described a mock epidemic staged in Hamlin with the goal of Marshall medical students identifying its cause.
That center was recognized by the National Rural Health Association with an Outstanding Practice Award in 1991. But when the organization prepared to transition to becoming a federally qualified health center a few years later, Stover was ready for a new challenge.
“I approved of what they were doing,” he said, “but I had a lot of concerns about the additional federal regulations.”
Once again, Walker was there, suggesting Stover become the chapter executive for the WVAFP. His first tenure was relatively short, two years, before Walker recruited him again to be CEO of University Physicians and Surgeons, the state’s second-largest multi-specialty group.
“We owe Dr. Walker so much because of what he’s done for me as a mentor,” Stover said. “He directed me to grants, speaking engagements, educational opportunities, networking engagements. A good mentor encourages you to do things outside your comfort zone, cautions you when you might be making bad decisions and tells you about things you should consider.”
Within two years, WVAFP asked Stover to come back, even if on a part-time basis. He agreed and worked for both the chapter and at the medical school.
During Stover’s second stint as chapter executive, he invited past AAFP president Richard Roberts, M.D., J.D., FAAFP, to visit West Virginia while the chapter was advocating for tort reform at the state level.
“He talked to the chair of the legislature’s health committee, who was also a lawyer,” Stover said. “He worked well with our legislature. The bottom line is we got court reform passed in the state. I can’t credit it all to Rich Roberts and what our chapter did, but I think we made a difference.”
Through the years, Stover has served on numerous state commissions, advisory committees and task forces, including multiple governor-appointed leadership roles, bringing the primary care perspective to conversations related to issues like rural health.
“As a Marine, we’re taught about the importance of the mission,” said Stover, who continued his military involvement in the West Virginia Air National Guard and the U.S. Air Force Reserve. “That really resonated with me. In primary care, we talk about Starfield model and the fact that communities that have more primary care have better health at lower cost. As a chapter exec, I’ve been in a position to help communities retain family physicians and to support those physicians. I started my career being trained to take lives. I finished my career trying to help save lives.”
In 2004, Stover ran into Larry Fields, M.D., FAAFP, of Ashland, Kentucky, and then a member of the AAFP Board of Directors during the Academy’s Annual Leadership Conference. Fields invited Stover to Louisville to interview for the Kentucky AFP’s chapter executive role. He’s led both the Kentucky and West Virginia chapters ever since.
When the AAFP holds its leadership conference this week in Kansas City, Missouri, Stover will be honored as the chapter executive of the year. But Stover, who plans to donate a significant amount of his retirement to Scouting America, will instead be on a scout trip. Stover, who was recently inducted into the West Virginia Executive Health Care Hall of Fame, said he appreciated the Academy’s honor, but he insisted that chapter funds would be better spent sending others to the event instead of someone whose work is nearly done.
Tracy Hendershott, M.D., FAAFP, of Elizabeth, West Virginia, will accept the award on Stover’s behalf.
“I’ve known him since he was a med student,” Stover said. “In fact, I’ve known most of the West Virginia leadership since they were medical students because of my work at Marshall. People like Tracy Hendershott, Kimberly Becher, Joanna Bailey from West Virginia and Patricia Swiney and Chuck Thornbury from Kentucky are my walking trophies or treasures, so to speak. The thing I’m most proud of is the leaders that they’ve turned out to be.”