‘He loved the job’: Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers reflects on his dad, Dr. Raymond Evers, who directed Sheboygan County sanitorium and hospital
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SHEBOYGAN - Caring for patients with tuberculosis and other ailments was a 24/7 job for Dr. Raymond Evers.
“I do remember the calls at 3 o’clock in the morning,” said Raymond’s son, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, at a county tribute to the doctor this month.
“You knew at 3 o’clock in the morning, somebody was having trouble and likely were at end of life,” Tony said. “(My father) would get up, come over and do what he needed to do — save a life, or get the family comfortable."
"He loved the job," Tony said.
Raymond Evers moved to Plymouth in 1950 and was medical director of Rocky Knoll Sanitorium and Hospital — now Rocky Knoll Heath Care Center — until his retirement in 1982. He lived in the doctor’s residence on the property with his family.
Dr. Evers' lifelong commitment to improving public health showed in his work at Rocky Knoll
Sheboygan County built the Rocky Knoll Sanatorium in 1919 to care for people with tuberculosis, a bacterial infection that mainly affects the lungs and can be deadly.
At the time, the infection was treated with bed rest and isolation, and patients often had to stay in the sanatorium — which provided entertainment, vocational training and educational courses — for multiple years.
When Rocky Knoll opened in 1926, it was the most technologically advanced and best staffed sanatorium in the state. By the end of the year, 80 beds were filled with TB patients.
It was not uncommon for Dr. Evers to have more than 100 TB patients at one time, “no doubt an incredibly challenging and demand work environment,” County Administrator Adam Payne said.
The doctor made it a point to see every patient at least once a day, Payne said.
Dr. Evers also helped conduct testing of school children and supported a statewide traveling X-ray van program that helped identify people with tuberculosis.
The doctor’s commitment to public health was among his most outstanding characteristics, said Jeanne McGee, Raymond’s daughter-in-law.
“He felt very strongly about how people in this country and in Wisconsin needed and deserved to get good quality health care, and he was very proud of the role governments played during the TB era and beyond to help support (public health),” McGee said.
By the 1960s, prevention and treatment for tuberculosis had improved so much — though it remains a public health concern around the world today — the facility transitioned to providing long-term skilled nursing care.
Dr. Evers was proud to become a resident of the nursing home himself, McGee said.
“He showed us a map he had made of Rocky Knoll,” she remembered from visiting him as a resident. “He had names of patients in rooms, patients that he knew. He said ‘I am so excited. Now I get to make rounds, I can go around and chat with people, but … I don’t have medical responsibilities anymore.’”
The doctor passed away at the facility in 2006. His legacy lives on through the work of many he inspired, including his sons, Mike, Mark and Tony, all three of whom have doctoral degrees.
Gov. Evers said the experience growing up on the grounds of Rocky Knoll, shadowing his father and working in and around the facility himself, shaped his passion for public service.
More: Sheboygan seniors need care, but many nursing homes can’t admit them due to staffing shortages
Rocky Knoll is now the largest nursing home in Sheboygan County. It's here to stay.
Rocky Knoll is the largest of nine nursing homes in Sheboygan County, with about 150 beds, and the only one owned and operated by the government.
Most Wisconsin counties now don’t own a nursing home, Payne said.
Although two other Sheboygan County-owned nursing homes either closed or privatized in the past 20 years, “there is no agenda to get out of operating Rocky Knoll,” he said. “In fact, we’ve put millions into this facility over the years.”
The home in which Gov. Evers and his brothers grew up has since been moved off the property.
Rocky Knoll’s budget of $14.5 million made up about 9% of Sheboygan County’s 2022 budget, but because of revenue and other funding was allocated only 2%, or about $1 million, of money allocated from the property tax levy.
The Sheboygan County Board also allocated American Rescue Plan Act funds to Rocky Knoll for staff recruitment and hiring.
A tribute to Raymond Evers, made possible by the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center and the Sheboygan County Historical Museum, will be on display at Rocky Knoll and the Historical Museum.
Reach Maya Hilty at 920-400-7485 or MHilty@sheboygan.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @maya_hilty.
This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers' dad was doctor who ran Sheboygan sanitorium
