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Show Oral History Program Nancy Hartog Interviewed by Marina Kenner 17 June 2019 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Nancy Hartog Interviewed by Marina Kenner 17 June 2019 Copyright © 2022 by Weber State University, Stewart Library iii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. The working files, original recording, and archival copies are housed in the University Archives. Project Description The Beyond Suffrage Project was initiated to examine the impact women have had on northern Utah. Weber State University explored and documented women past and present who have influenced the history of the community, the development of education, and are bringing the area forward for the next generation. The project looked at how the 19th Amendment gave women a voice and representation, and was the catalyst for the way women became involved in the progress of the local area. The project examines the 50 years (1870-1920) before the amendment, the decades to follow and how women are making history today. ___________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Hartog, Nancy, an oral history by Marina Kenner, 17 June 2019, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. Nancy Hartog 2019 1 Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Nancy Hartog, conducted on June 17, 2019 in the Stewart Library’s University Archives Conference Room, by Marina Kenner. Nancy discusses her life, her memories at Weber State University, and the impact of the 19th Amendment. Alexis Stokes, the video technician, is also present during this interview. MK: Thank you for spending your time and doing this with us. NH: You’re welcome. MK: Today is June 17, 2019, and we are conducting an oral history interview with Nancy Hartog in the Archives Conference Room in the Stewart Library. Marina Kenner is the interviewer, and Alexis Stokes is our video technician. We are going to start with some background information just to get started. When and where were you born? NH: I was born in Ogden in the Thomas D. Dee Memorial Hospital in 1955 to Blaine and May Hartog. The grounds of that hospital are now a public park in Ogden on the east side of Harrison Blvd between 24th and 25th Streets. MK: Do you know the park name? NH: The Dee Memorial Park. MK: You grew up in Ogden? NH: I did. I’ve never lived anywhere other than the Ogden area. MK: Where did you grow up? 2 NH: I was born in Ogden, and my family moved to different locations around this valley. I currently live in North Ogden. MK: How many siblings do you have? NH: I have three older siblings: Thomas, Edward, and Marilyn. MK: Would you talk a little bit about your early life and some historical background about yourself? NH: I was educated in Ogden City Schools, and I graduated from Ben Lomond High School in 1973. I enrolled in Weber State in the fall of ‘73, and I graduated with an associate’s degree in Radiologic Sciences in the fall of 1975. During that time Radiologic Technology students had to complete 2,200 clinical hours in a hospital in addition to our classroom hours. I was fortunate enough to be chosen by McKay-Dee Hospital, which was across from the University. I was there for most of my clinical training. I did go to two hospitals in Salt Lake, Primary Children’s and Cottonwood, for short rotations, and I finished those clinical hours at McKay-Dee. I began my career there after passing the board exams. My beginning four years of experience as a Radiologic Technologist helped me move into a position as a CT Scan Technologist for the next four years. When McKay began MRI scan services, another Rad Tech and I were selected to learn that technology, and I stayed in that for six years. I had some back injuries resulting in two back surgeries while working in those three areas and needed to find an area in Imaging Services that was easier on my back. I returned to Weber State to learn Ultrasonography in 1990-1991. I took several of 3 the board exams needed throughout my ultrasound years, and I worked in that area until I retired, due to health issues with my back, in 2006. In all I worked for 30 years in Imaging Services at McKay Dee. I consider my career an “amazing ride” through technology that began at Weber State and was furthered by returning there. MK: Your father was heavily involved in Automotive Education at Weber State. Would you talk a little bit about his involvement in that and maybe your childhood with that? NH: He had worked at Hill Field on airplane engines and later at Browning Chevrolet. He was hired in 1945 when it was Weber College to teach automotive classes at their vocational building on Adams Avenue. At that time the College consisted of buildings located between that building and up 25th Street, including some on Jefferson Avenue. When Weber College moved up to the present site of the campus, a building dedicated to automotive shops was built. Dad always had access to the shops. He would go there on Saturday mornings and do what he referred to as “Saturday Shop.” He’d be there to help students, faculty members, friends or family members with car problems, and I’d often get to go along. I liked to hang the tools up when they were done. I also liked rolling around on the flat carts that mechanics use to roll underneath the cars. I’d go down in what they’d call the “pit” where cars were driven onto a track over the pit, and then mechanics would go down underneath to work on the underside of cars. It was great fun to play in the pit and around the shop. I know he really was a pioneer in that department. 4 He worked nearly all his 32 years at Weber, alongside John Gaz, another automotive professor. They became close friends, and I believe they retired together. They would joke that “what Blaine didn’t know, John did, and what John didn’t know, Blaine did.” As a side note, to this day whenever my current vehicle is in a shop for maintenance, an oil change, or even a tire rotation, the smell of the shop reminds me of those childhood days. Interestingly, about two or three years ago, I was here on campus, and I drove up by his old shop. I went in the open shop door and was greeted by Professor John D. Kelly in the same automotive shop where my dad taught, and we had a great talk about the “olden days” of that building and also talked about the advancement of automotive technology. It was a great experience for me to be back in there. In those early days of Weber College there was a faculty wives club. The women met and planned service events and/or had interesting speakers. They also hosted a Christmas party complete with Santa Claus for the children of the College employees. In1957 my dad and some other campus faculty and staff started the Weber College Credit Union to serve the campus employees and their families My dad was the first treasurer and conducted the business of loans in his office in the tech building. He had created a form the applicant completed and then issued a check to him or her. All records of transactions were kept in a metal box in the bottom drawer of the desk in his office. Someone would come in and say, “I need $25 for this”, or “I need $100 for that”, and he’d write them a check. (That’s pretty scary to think about now in this day and age!) After the large Student Union Building was built, a secure credit union office opened down a 5 narrow hall from the bowling alley. My mother started working in the credit union in about 1968 as the secretary to the office manager and as a teller. My dad served as the treasurer, even past his retirement from the faculty in 1978. I’ve been a member all but the first two years of my life. That credit union is now named Weber State Credit Union, and membership and services are open to anyone. Interestingly enough, my dad’s account number was a two-digit number. Sometime in my childhood, he opened an account for me that had a three-digit number. And some years ago, when I was refinancing a home loan at the credit union (my dad had passed away before that), I told the loan officer that I really regretted not taking over his original account number. The mortgage officer looked it up and said, “Well nobody else has it. Do you want it back?” So, my account number is my dad’s original one. I have a nephew waiting for me to give it up, so he can then have that “historic” account number. MK: What’s your father’s name? NH: Blaine Moyes Hartog. His picture is in the 1961 yearbook (and many others) that I was looking at here in the library when you came in to start this interview. MK: Were you encouraged to pursue an education? NH: Absolutely and by both of my parents. Whether or not you were going to Weber wasn’t even talked about; it was expected. My brother, Tom, attended but then graduated after becoming a husband and father. His major was Manufacturing Engineering. My other brother, Ed, attended one year and then joined the Air Force. He didn’t finish his education at Weber. Marilyn graduated cum laude with 6 a degree in English and German from Weber State. I followed their examples of education at Weber and studied Radiologic Sciences. Weber was pretty much the only university in the land, let’s just put it that way. The programs here in Radiologic Sciences were the best thing that had ever happened to prepare me for a wonderful career. MK: Do you know if there were any other radiology programs outside of Weber during that time? NH: There were two in Salt Lake City. One was at the University of Utah Hospital and another at St. Mark’s Hospital. They were referred to as “hospital based.” Weber State was the only college-based program in the state of Utah for a long time. MK: Was it having x-rays that got you interested in Radiologic Sciences? NH: Yes, x-rays that I had as a child and also in my teenage years. MK: What were they like? NH: Then and now? MK: Yes, then and now. Has the technology changed? NH: Oh yes! When I first started as a student at McKay-Dee, an x-ray was taken on film in what was called a cassette. Different sizes of film cassettes were used depending on what body part needed an x-ray. In a darkroom the technologist took the film out of the cassette and put it on the tray, where it went between rollers through developer chemicals and then through the dryer portion of the film processing machine. While it was drying the technologist or the darkroom 7 assistant refilled the cassette with blank film. When the film had dried, the image was checked for quality and then hung on “view” or “light” boxes for the Radiologist, who is a physician that interprets radiology procedures. X-rays and CT (computed tomography) still use radiation to produce images. MRI uses radiofrequencies in a magnetic field to create images. Ultrasound uses sound wave forms to produce an image. Today, all images appear on the screen of whatever type of machine is being used for diagnosing illness, disease, or the effects of trauma. Radiologists report the findings, and reports are made for a patient’s attending physician. I feel like a person from the ancient times of radiology as I describe how things were when I began my education! Now I am always fascinated by anything I’ve seen since my retirement that is a part of any Imaging Services department. MK: Backtracking just a minute, what’s your mother’s name? NH: Her name is May Jost Hartog. Both my parents are deceased now. MK: What years did you attend Weber State? And, did you mention you came back to Weber State after a few years of working? NH: Yes, in 1973-1975, when I learned x-ray. I returned to Weber State because there was an ultrasound program here. That was in 1989-1991. McKay was happy I was learning to do ultrasound examinations. As I mentioned, I finished my career as the lead technologist in ultrasound. It is amazing how the last three modalities in Imaging Services didn’t even exist when I began the radiology program here at Weber State in 1973! 8 MK: What was Weber State like when you first started? NH: Well, I don’t think the library was in this location! MK: Probably not. It’s moved. NH: The radiology program and also the ultrasound programs were housed in what then was called Building 3. When I was a freshman here, the campus was small compared to now, and all the court sports were played in the Swenson Gym because the Dee Events Center did not exist. When I was on campus, I’d go to the credit union and ask my mom for some money, so I could eat lunch in the Union Building. Or, I would go to the tech building and ask dad for money. Sometimes I’d get away with doing both! I also worked in the campus bookstore the first semester I was on campus. Dee Schenck was the manager and a family friend. I did play volleyball for Weber State when I was a freshman in the fall of 1973. The bookstore job and playing women’s sports ended once I was selected to be in the Radiologic Technology program because of the long hours needed for classes and clinical time at McKay Dee. The Shepherd Union Building and Campus Store are very beautifully rebuilt and designed. J. Farrell and Lois Shepherd would be amazed at how nice the new facilities are that still bear the Shepherd name. When I took English courses and American history, they were held in the social science building that’s not here anymore. Weber State was small, and it was like home to me. I knew some of the professors and campus officials because they were my parents’ friends. 9 MK: Did you notice any big changes other than the campus size between your first time here and your second time here? NH: Of course, there were more buildings, and they were more specialized. The library was a lot larger. Parking was worse because there were more students. MK: Were you involved in other clubs and organizations other than the volleyball team? NH: I was not. The radiology program, as well as the ultrasound program, were very intense because clinical hours held in the hospitals were in addition to classroom hours. I did attend Weber State men’s basketball games and later became a season ticket holder for many years. I love men’s basketball. It’s so intense. MK: The Weber State basketball games? NH: Oh, absolutely. My blood runs purple! MK: What professors did you have that stood out to you? NH: Joy Wood was my volleyball coach. Joyce Williams and Ralph Dabb in the English department, Richard Sadler in the history department, and Neil Dickson in the math department were my favorites. Sister Stephanie, from St Benedict’s Hospital, taught the 3-term, not semesters back then, class titled, “Biomedical Science Core”, and it was intense. Jane Ward (VanValkenburg) taught the Radiologic Science courses to my class of 16 students. Jane taught and influenced, for the better, many radiologic technologists in Utah during the 1970s and beyond. Jane developed “Rad Tech packets” which, at the time, were 10 innovative modules. She did receive her PhD a few years later and was appointed Department Chair of Radiologic Sciences at Weber. The program continues to accept students from all states and many nations. Dr. VanValkenburg and Dr. Diane Kawamura, who developed the ultrasound program at Weber State, really put this university “on the map” in our nation with the many imaging programs at Weber State. MK: What was it about Jane that stood out to you? NH: She had been where I was going. She had taught all the x-ray physics, positioning techniques, and proper patient care. I knew she had to be so proficient to be able to teach it. I looked up to her so much. She developed all the curriculum at Weber because there wasn’t a lot available then. As a side note, as we talk about classes in the early years, my parents bought the required “Merrill’s Atlas of Roentgenology”, a three-volume collection of all body positioning for radiographic imaging, which was like the bible for any radiologic program. The cost for the set was $110, which seemed so expensive at the time. (Early on x-ray technology was actually called Roentgenology before it was radiology.) We learned out of those books, and Jane was amazing to have developed all she taught. She was not only smart, but she was very encouraging. When I came back to Weber for the ultrasound program, most of the classes were taught by Dr. Diane Kawamura. I say “ultrasound”, but it is also known as “sonography”. MK: Were there a lot of females in the radiological field when you first started? 11 NH: There were. As I look back to when I started at McKay, there were probably more males, but not a lot. Nursing was traditionally a woman’s career, although now there are more and more men entering that field. But radiology was, and is, about 50/50. Health professions continue to interest a lot of different people. They don’t seem to be gender specific. Weber State has drawn many women and men of many different nationalities. I do remember one woman who had come from Alaska to Weber State to learn ultrasound technology. She left her family to attend Weber for her ultrasound education and then returned to Alaska more educated to join her husband and family. I recall thinking she was amazing to have traveled that far for this program. Students were from many places and nations. I recall a Navajo man from Arizona, a man from Jamaica, and a woman from India, to name a few. In the beginning radiology and nursing were hospital-based programs. Because of the pioneers in nursing and the allied health sciences, universities, such as Weber State, began offering those programs at the university level, and this drew students from diverse places. As far as which gender is apt to “fit in” in radiology, it depends on what procedures they choose to specialize in. During my early years at McKay-Dee, the radiology department acquired its first mammography machine. Mammography is quite gender specific although men can develop breast cancer and do have mammograms, and most women would prefer a female technologist. Most any other imaging procedure could be done by either gender. Men are compassionate, but women are a bit more compassionate as I recall from my early working days. I think that is pretty much everywhere in imaging or 12 nursing or wherever. There are now many men who are nurses and PA’s (physician’s assistant) within a radiology department. One area I would think of as more a women’s specialty, besides mammography, is in ultrasound because there is so much obstetrical ultrasound. I have seen some shift in that lately. When I left McKay-Dee in 2006, all but one of the sonographers were women. There were a couple of men up in the cardiac ultrasound department, but there were also women there. MK: What were some of your favorite memories at Weber State? NH: I enjoyed men’s basketball and football. I enjoyed going when time allowed. The comradery among the radiology students was very good and very important to me. I liked to talk to other students in other majors and that was why I liked being in the Union Building because you could talk to a lot of different people. I liked the socialness in the Union Building. I even used to go bowling there. Do they still have a bowling alley? MK: They do. NH: Okay. Anyway, I enjoyed campus life. I was awfully busy with the clinical hours and studying. At the end of a classroom day or after a day of clinical hours, I wasn’t really back on campus other than for ball games. But when I was here, I loved it. MK: Do you have any other degrees and certifications? NH: Yes. In the Health Sciences—nursing, respiratory therapy, radiology, etc.—you receive a college education and degree, but you have to take registry exams in 13 order to work. They are often referred to as “boards” or board exams, and so I took and passed the radiology board that had two parts to it: the physics part plus the imaging part—the physiology of the body, the skeletal structure, and the anatomy. Ultrasound was a little different in the fact that you had to learn the physics of ultrasound and pass that registry. The other registries I had to have in the beginning of my career there were the specialties of abdomen and OB/GYN. Abdomen included everything from the top of the thyroid gland and all the way through the abdomen. I took and passed the physics, the abdomen, and the OB/GYN. And then other specialties started coming. I didn’t ever do ultrasound of the heart because that’s an entirely different registry and because the radiology department and the Heart Institute at McKay were separate. I didn’t pursue cardiology at all. Vascular imaging includes the carotid arteries in the neck, all of the leg and arm vessels, and all of the abdomen and kidney vessels. There was a specialty registry for that, which I took and passed. My favorite place to do x-rays, meaning chest x-rays, and then ultrasound exams later on in my career, was in the Intensive Care Nurseries. I’m not a mom, but I’m a woman, a friend, and an aunt. And that was my favorite place of anywhere I went with an ultrasound machine was to what we called the NICU—Nursery Intensive Care Unit. I had spent a lot of time there taking x-rays of tiny little people, and when I started in ultrasound, I did some additional body imaging for them using ultrasound. But the main reason for being in there was to do an ultrasound of their brains. Ultrasound waves don’t penetrate bone, but in newborns they have what we call the “soft spot” or the fontanel. I spent a lot of 14 my early morning shifts in the NICU doing those scans. It was one of the most sacred places I’ve ever been, to be honest with you. I also took the registry board for that specialty. By the time I left imaging, I had my RDMS—which was the ultrasound registry exam. In ultrasound I had all of those specialty registries—the abdomen, the OB/GYN, the vascular registries, and neuroimaging for infants. But my career in the four parts of imaging services (x-ray, CT, MRI, and ultrasound), to my knowledge, has not been duplicated at McKay-Dee. Imaging students can now choose one area to study and be registered to do. As I’ve said all that, it is not to boast, but it is to give credit where credit is due. None of that would have been possible if I hadn’t been at Weber State at the right time. You can call me a pioneer if you want. I used to joke that I hauled the MRI machine here in my handcart since McKay was the second site in Utah to have one. But I still get excited about imaging, and as I look back as old people do, I’m very proud of what I learned and what I was able to do for those 30 years. I think in a way, I could relate to my dad. When he started working on cars, back in the beginning, most cars were a Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge, or other classic brand. Today, there is so much under the hood and inside the car that is computerized. Diagnostic testing has to be done to determine what is wrong or needs replacing. I’ve felt like I walked that same path as my dad but in my own field. MK: With the new technology, did you have to take new boards as that came out? NH: Yes. As I mentioned earlier I had passed the basic x-ray boards. The registries, or boards, for CT and MRI are now required; but, because I had moved to ultrasound before that happened, I had no reason to go back and do that. In any 15 of the health care professions, one has to study endlessly and get good grades. However if required board exams aren’t passed then the education can’t be used. MK: While you were still at McKay-Dee, did you work closely with the Weber State students? NH: I did. I forgot to mention that. At hospitals and perhaps now at other healthcare facilities, the providers are called “adjunct faculty” for all departments within a radiology department. I did work with teaching students in all modalities I worked in. We received discounts at the bookstore and $10 a year or something like that. It certainly doesn’t sound like much but it was nice to be chosen to do so. MK: Was it in hospitals or did you do any lectures on campus? NH: I did not. It was just in the hospitals and most always one on one with a student. MK: Do you have any fond memories of students? NH: Not really specifically very many. Earlier I mentioned the students that we had that came from outside Utah or this nation. I remember the Navajo man— probably after the Christmas holidays or semester break—he went back to Arizona, and when he returned, he brought me a turquoise necklace. I was so surprised and that has been a fond memory that I had made that much of an impact on him that he would bring me a personal gift. I enjoyed talking to the lady from Alaska just because I had never been there, and I respected her for all she had given up to be here at Weber State. I also enjoyed the lady from India. I have the following memory of her. She apparently cooked in her dorm. She would 16 bring that food and heat it up in the department microwave. The smell of curry, to this day, would probably give me a migraine. And then I would smile. We did get a little international flavor of some of them. The man from Jamaica was a lot of fun. Those are good memories. While working, and even now, I receive most of my healthcare at McKay Dee, and I enjoy it when I see old friends who were once students I had worked alongside. MK: Did you still see that diversity in the radiological or ultrasound departments that you did when you first started? NH: Yes, and I believe that is good for everyone. I’m sure at some point many, many other people came to Weber State for these same learning experiences, and I’m grateful to this day that they do. I attended a lot of conferences around the country and met people who had heard of Weber State. I thought that was wonderful for Weber and our increasingly diverse community. Are either of you in this interview local to Weber? MK: I’m in Farmington. NH: This story can really be off the record, but I was attending a meeting in Chicago years ago, and we were sitting at a dining table in the conference center. All of us started asking each other, “Where do you live? Where are you from?” I said I was from Utah.” A few asked, “Where in Utah?” “Ogden.” One woman looked at me and she said, “Do you know where the Valley is?” I replied, “There are a lot of valleys in Utah, but there is one literally over the mountain from my home called 17 Huntsville that’s referred to as ‘the valley’, and there’s a ski resort there.” She said, “Yes. I’ve been there, but I remember it was called the Valley.” I explained to her that “the Valley” was a nickname. There I was in Chicago and a woman from Georgia was asking if I knew where the Valley was in Utah. So, that was pretty cool that we were known far and wide. I enjoyed conferences very much. Some were paid for by McKay, but sometimes I attended even though the expense was out of my pocket. I went to conferences in Oregon, Southern California, Idaho, Colorado, Chicago, Texas and other places for national radiology meetings. There’s an international meeting in Chicago that happens every year known as RSNA, the Radiologic Society of North America. I went three of my six years I worked in MRI because the technology was so new and fascinating. Those meetings were interesting to go to because there were huge display areas of every machine on the market. All types of diagnostic machines found in a radiology department were on display. Sales representatives and technologists worked together to teach and demonstrate to attendees what was possible with the “latest and greatest” innovations. One year McKay had purchased a very new, different kind of an MRI machine, and the manufacturer asked me if I would go and help staff their booth to “pitch” that new machine. The conference was held in Chicago every November at McCormick Place, a very large convention center on the shore of Lake Michigan. Different brands of many kinds of equipment would bring in mock machines. I was asked to work in that booth for hours. I was still able to go to some of the classes, but I was kind of like a PR kind of person for that company, and they paid all my 18 expenses that year. It was an honor to be asked to do that. It was a great experience. Besides looking at and learning about new equipment I attended a lot of lectures from physicians and other professors representing all the sciences demonstrated, and it was wonderful to learn about the applications of the new machines available. One year during my years in ultrasound, I was able to attend and learn from the standpoint of that type of imaging. Certain amounts of continuing education credits were necessary in order to maintain whatever credentials were required to remain employed and/or registered. It was imperative to do what was necessary to always keep learning and stay qualified in the medical field area I was working. MK: Did you attend any conferences as a student? NH: I did in the ones that were held locally, anywhere from Provo to Ogden. There was also a state meeting every year, and I believe that still happens. MK: Did you ever present at any of these conferences other than your little presentation? NH: I did present locally when we first got MRI, and a lot of people in the community wanted to know why we were using this expensive machine for imaging. Due to publicity, the community knew that the machine cost $6 million. It was more expensive to buy an MRI machine than a CT scan machine. (One thing many people then and also now don’t realize is that those two different machines demonstrate diseases differently. One may be better to demonstrate something 19 that the other machine cannot.) I was frequently asked why hospitals and some free-standing clinics spending this kind of money. I did present at one of our Utah state-wide meetings. The Idaho State Radiology Society invited me to speak at one of their state conferences, and I presented about that. And again, it wasn’t so much about “How does it work?” It was more about “What is it used for? Why does it cost so much to buy one?” And so that was an honor to be invited to do that. MK: I think you kind of answered this, but if there’s anything else that you’d like to add—what did you do after you graduated from Weber? NH: As I previously mentioned, I worked at McKay Hospital for 30 years. So, what have I done with all that experience? I’ve always considered myself a quiet ambassador for Weber State. I talk about my experiences there. I have a niece who graduated with a political science degree and great-niece that started her college education at Utah State, but now she’s finishing her elementary education degree at Weber State. I’m so pleased that there is another generation with a Hartog link. I like to travel, mainly in the United States. I’ve been in almost every state for a variety of reasons. What else did I do? I serve in my church. I love to serve in humanitarian projects. I serve locally in my neighborhood as a homeowner association board member. I enjoy being involved with people and promoting a good cause. MK: What kind of advocacy for Weber State have you been doing? 20 NH: I’ve always been an advocate for Weber State either boasting about their athletics or other events on campus. I still go to men’s basketball games every once in a while. I’m proud of Weber’s name out in the community. I really am. I love diversity, and that’s a rich part of Weber State. MK: How did attending Weber State help you in your career field or shape your career field? NH: I talked about that at length earlier in our conversation. My education at Weber State prepared me well for my career. I’ve always been grateful for that. MK: Did you work with a lot of Weber State graduates at McKay-Dee? NH: Yes, there are physicians in the community to this day that did their undergrad work here at Weber. Right away I think of Dr. David Goff, a heart surgeon, who started here on this campus. Many of the PA’s in this community that I know started here. There are many, many nurses, technologists, respiratory therapists, and even physical therapists who did their undergrad here at Weber. MK: Did you find any resistance or battles while you progressed in your career? NH: I did not. As far as gender preference? No. I was in the right place, prepared and ready, at the right time. MK: How have you become a mentor to others in your field? NH: I taught in the clinical side of imaging to the radiology students at their hospital rotation and that was mentoring. They were able to see so much of how it was 21 done. They’d return to those technologists who were willing to explain and teach long after that particular topic was taught. MK: It sounds like you are very involved in the community. NH: I was and still am. I’m not in large community health services. I’m more a one-on-one type of help to family and friends, so they understand what their healthcare provider is telling them. I don’t make the decisions for them, but I do want them to hear the information they need in order to navigate through their diagnosis to therapy or surgery. That is all so frightening to many people, especially to elderly friends and neighbors. Perhaps I’m an advocate for someone to get good healthcare and seeking help when needed. I’ve been asked by many, “What do you do now that you can’t work anymore?” I may have stopped working, but I never stopped being interested in what’s new in diagnostic medicine and the treatments available. And I’ve never stopped being an advocate for somebody who’s in the healthcare-related “arena” because they are sick or injured. MK: All from being a patient in an x-ray room? NH: Probably all from having to have x-rays when I broke my wrist playing high school basketball, and the rest is literally history. It’s my history. MK: Was there anything specific about that x-ray—that first x-ray—that caught your eye that launched this? NH: I thought it was so interesting to look at my own bones and see the one that didn’t look like the rest of them! That made a difference to me in deciding what I wanted to study in college. I’m sure many healthcare providers had similar 22 personal experiences or watched family or friends’ experiences. Yes, my parents were proud of me for making that decision and staying with it. Outside of a cousin who began his college education at Weber State and later became an orthodontist, no one in my extended family had ever studied medicine. MK: You said that you go to a lot of basketball games and football games. Are there any other ways that you still stay connected with Weber State? NH: Absolutely. Besides sporting events, I attend concerts, art exhibits, and theater productions. I’ll always have a Weber State shirt and sweatshirt in the closet. There’s an Alumni sticker on my rear window. I’ve donated some money to Weber. Oh, I forgot to mention that my parents created a small scholarship in memory of my brother, Ed, in the late ‘60s or early ‘70s. Some years later a coworker asked me one day if I knew anything about a scholarship her husband had received that had the name “Hartog” on it. MK: Do you know if that Hartog scholarship still exists? NH: It does not. MK: I do have a question about the faculty wives club. What was that like? It sounds interesting. NH: How gender biased is that? It was called the “Faculty Women’s Club” or something similar to that. They had social luncheons, charitable causes, and I also remember a Christmas Santa Party for the children of the faculty and staff members. Many years later I lived near a woman that had been a professor for many years. I asked her what it was like to be so outnumbered by 120 or so 23 faculty men. She replied as she was laughing and said, “It was fine because we got even.” The faculty wives group was a social thing, and I believe it was important because it helped the wives feel a part of the college. MK: How do you think women receiving the right to vote, shaped or influenced history, your community, and you personally? NH: When you sent that question to me before this interview, I thought, “Where did that come from?” It is interesting as I think now, “Why wouldn’t women have the right to vote?” Women not only have the right to vote, but they also have the right to lead. I can’t imagine not having a woman’s voice heard. Whether it’s one woman or one million women, they should have had it from the beginning of our nation. The first state to give women the right to vote was Wyoming, and Utah was second. I think that speaks volumes about the respect women had and still have in this state. We are created equal. It’s hard for me to believe any one person, or people, ever thought we weren’t able to think for ourselves, considering the great intelligence women were given and have always had. Of course women can be university professors and university presidents. Women can be nurses (and so can men). Women can be physicians just as well as men and just as capably. (A woman can also be a groundbreaking imaging technologist). I have a friend, Barbara J. Runyen, who started a business in Chicago that provides coaching for executives of both genders. She’s also a Weber State graduate, class of ‘72. Her BS degree from here was in Clinical Laboratory Science. Women can make an enormous impact in voting and in 24 chosen professions. I think back when Olene Walker was the governor of Utah, and she was amazing. Many women thought, “Finally, women have a voice.” Well, I think women had some voice long before Olene Walker was elected, but she became such a wonderful example in Utah and beyond our state lines. I admired so much of what she did and that she was such an influential woman. After serving for seven years, she left the office of governor and created the Olene S. Walker Institute of Politics & Public Service to help foster in Weber State University students and the broader community the ideals of public service and political engagement that motivated her decades-long career in Utah politics. The Walker Institute coordinates internships for Weber State University students, holds public forums and debates on public policy issues, and provides leadership and engaged-citizenship workshops for students and the community at large. Women don’t only have the right to vote; we have the right to lead. I’m passionate about equality. I think we could just throw the word equality out. We are just people. It doesn’t matter what we look like in the mirror; our hearts and our minds are equal. MK: Are there any other memories or stories that you’d like to share with us? NH: In the ‘60s Weber’s homecoming parade ran along Washington Boulevard in Ogden. It was a much simpler parade than in the recent past. My dad was the homecoming parade chairman for 6 or 8 years. One auto dealership would provide convertibles (with their logo and name on each side) for use by Weber. 25 I love living in the area where my roots began: in my education, my family, and my career. MK: Thank you so much for your time today. NH: Oh, you are welcome. I hope there’s something useful in all of this. MK: I think we got a lot of interesting stuff. NH: Alright, you know it’s really kind of a small scope of things here at Weber State that we’ve talked about when I think about it. Here’s only one person that did this, but thank you for giving me a voice in this. Thank you for asking me to do this interview. MK: You are welcome. Interview Addendum: On June 21, 2019, Ms. Hartog contacted the Weber State Archives and added these two statements to her interview: There have been three women who served as the director of Imaging Services and all three are WSU graduates. Barbara Runyen served in the 1980s, Leona M. Sully in early the 2000s, and the current director is Lisa Sanford. Also, two men, Richard Taylor and Timothy Scalice in the 2000s also were imaging department managers at McKay, were also WSU graduates. Also, I believe in ‘equality rights’, which are not only equal but equal in quality. More than ever before women have a unique role in our community and nation. We don't just stand together as race and gender, we stand together as people. Olene Walker understood these important points. 26 2nd Interview Addendum: Please add this statement: Dear Reader, Perhaps much of this document sounds boastful of what I, Nancy Hartog, accomplished in more than 32 years learning and practicing in different imaging modalities. I’ve been blessed to be “in the right time, right place.” I’m grateful to have had such an interesting career to have been able to learn and to experience all that I’ve mentioned in this interview, and more. In all of my years in radiology, I’m so grateful for learning “patient-focused care” at McKay Dee Hospital. Those principles have stayed with me to this day and are applicable as I continue to volunteer to serve others. Yes, it was a “great ride”, and I will always know that so much of this was possible through the foundations of learning here at Weber State University! If I were asked what one principle inspired me to serve, it would be this quote that’s inscribed on a pillar at Ogden Regional Hospital: “Above all things, care must be taken of the sick as if they were Christ in person.” |