George Harrison, MD Endowment
Become a valuable contributor to the George Harrison, MD Endowment Fund!
Donate to the George Harrison, MD Endowment, and your gift will grow and help LGBTQ+ clients into the future!
George Harrison, MD is a beloved human, husband, friend, son, psychiatrist, and colleague at the Alliance Health Project. Dr. Harrison will retire later this year and in honor of his three decades of building a legacy of kindhearted care for his clients, George’s husband Anthony has committed to match your gifts to create the George Harrison, MD endowment, securing a lifetime of care for LGBTQ patients with mental illness.
Dr. Harrison was scheduled to retire in June 2020 but postponed his retirement when the coronavirus outbreak made his service at the clinic emotionally and logistically essential. Here is a note he wrote to the staff announcing his retirement postponement on March 19, 2020:
I’ve been thinking about my folks a lot lately and how they and their generation found a way to experience the world as a chaotic place and yet, not let their fears and anxieties determine the course of their lives.
My parents were both born in 1922 and raised on farms in rural Kansas. As they turned seven, the Great Depression descended on the world which would last for most of a decade. Just as the Midwest was getting on its feet again, World War II started. My Dad signed up for the Army the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor and he remained in the service for the duration. In 1945, as my folks turned 23, the war ended. By this point, they had experienced the majority of their formative years in a world that was chaotic and threatening, yet my parents believed in the blessings of life and the potential for goodness in the world, so much so that they had three children.
It is only now in my 60s that I know how fortunate I have been to have the life that I have been given, even with a virus defining the beginning and end of my career. I can see the events I have experienced in proportion and context and have a strong sense of the potential for goodness and genuine progress in our world.
This is a particular time of change and challenge in our world and for AHP. Because of the convergence of our staffing changes, service needs and the test of providing care in the face of Covid-19, I have decided to postpone my retirement with the hope to assist in providing stability and continuity at this time. I will remain in my post as the Medical Director until a variety of factors that are unknowable at this point become clearer. I am hopeful that come October, we will all be able to have a retirement party, in person, to celebrate my years of service and pass the baton to a new Medical Director. After this, I am still planning on returning to AHP as a retiree two days a week after a break.
With time, details will become clearer and I am confident that AHP will be on an even footing by the time I leave our agency. As I said to Lori and Jim, I know that I am just where I should be and happy for this opportunity.
- George
Dr. Harrison has been a steady and compassionate guide for the staff throughout his career and in particular, in the last few months he has helped us achieve safety, client continuity of care, and ways to seamlessly transition to digital services, and above all, how to continue to be there for our clients.
This endowment, this legacy, that the Harrison’s have created will ensure that clients will continue to be cared for in years and decades to come.
Help us create a lasting legacy for Dr. Harrison.
Donate to the George Harrison, MD Endowment, and your gift will grow and help LGBTQ+ clients into the future!