Name: Bruce D. Wood

College and Year Graduated: St. Louis College of Pharmacy, 1980

What is your position(s) with IPhA?

Secretary

Where is your practice site?

I am a retired pharmacist and previously worked in several independent pharmacies across east central Illinois before purchasing Dicks Pharmacy in Arthur. At this time I am working part time at A Bloom Above and Beyond Flower Shop in Tuscola. I also am on the Douglas County Board of Review and am a part time employee at the Douglas County Museum when the executive director is gone.

Tell us about your practice and any specialty areas that you have.

My old pharmacy was truly a relic of the past with a soda fountain on the left as you walked in and a large display of soda bottles on one side and old pharmacy relics on the other displayed above the products on the walls. We did limited compounding since we did not have a sterile environment and lacked sufficient time for complicated compounds. We were a service minded pharmacy including free prescription delivery. I fully realize the practice of Pharmacy has changed at my old pharmacy and around the state, but the problems caused due to underpayments from the PBM’s and the restrictions they place on pharmacy existed then and have only intensified since I retired.

What challenges does your practice site face?

Despite no longer working behind the counter I know there are several financial challenges to keep the doors open and the staffing issue continues to affect how the pharmacy operates. These issues are primarily due to the negative impacts of the greedy Plan Benefit Managers.

When and how did you decide to choose pharmacy as your career?

Finding a career in the health care industry was important to me during my high school years (the 1970s and the Vietnam War). There was a poster on the bulletin board in high school from StLCoP and I knew a few others from Tuscola high school were going into the same field.

What, or who, has been a great influence in your career and life in general?

I had a lot of great teachers, Miss Cox, John Leamon, and Mrs. Kleiss in high school and (Dr. Cooper and Dr.Zimmer) in college and great guidance in pharmacy from Harold Endris of Pana and Noel Dicks of Arthur, but my parents,(Carol and Pat Wood) have had the greatest influence in my life by giving me the desire to work hard, treat people with love and respect, and to be involved and give back to my community and church and the love for and from a family.

What pearls of wisdom would you pass on to student and young pharmacists?

It is not always easy, but be involved in your community and give back to your community. Likewise be involved in your profession the best that you can with the time you have. If that means you are a member of IPHA and a national pharmacy organization, or you become more involved and become a delegate or officer, be involved and support your industry. By supporting your community your community will pay you back over and over again. By supporting your profession you will be supporting yourself to a better future that is more rewarding and more secure and headed in the direction YOU want it to be. As well, advocate for your profession while you advocate for your community, by being in contact with your representative and/or senator, letting them know the challenges of your profession as well as the rewards for you and the community. IPHA can help you meet these challenges and gain the rewards.

What does IPhA mean to you and your practice?

While I realize I was not always able to attend the conferences each year, for many years I did sponsor my employee pharmacist to attend and I have been a long time member. It was just that important to me that IPHA be successful and that we learn from them and they hear from our part of the state. At this point I see IPHA as the future for how pharmacy will survive if it can and it is up to pharmacists and technicians to be involved in IPHA to make sure the future of the profession is in their favor.

What are you involved in outside of pharmacy, ie hobbies, special interests?

 I am a member of Tuscola United Methodist Church and participate in several groups including sanctuary choir and hand bells and am on the mowing team and decorating team for the sanctuary. I also serve on the Trustees as chairman and on the worship team as secretary. 

 I am a collector of numerous articles including items from Tuscola and Douglas County and pharmacy related items. But my primary collection is applied color label (painted) ACL soda bottles. I have over 2500 soda bottles in my collection but am presently only acquiring ones from Illinois which I have about 400. 

 I am the videographer for the Tuscola Warriors football team. I have been filming the games, home and away, for the team since 1986. In the past I have made highlight films for the teams from football and basketball until newer technology arrived. Prior to purchasing Dicks Pharmacy, I also filmed for the Tuscola boys basketball team for 10 years. 

 I have been involved with and now coordinate the Arthur Pumpkin House since its inception in 2005. Presently the Arthur Pumpkin House is 200 carved jack-o-lanterns that are lit each night between October 24 and 31 at a house in the downtown area of Arthur. School children and local groups and citizens carve the pumpkins that are donated by the Great Pumpkin Patch. 

I am a member of a local bluegrass band called Strings Attached. I have been a member for 8 years, singing lead and backup vocals for the group. There are 7 band members and we play at churches and for several community service organizations and a few paid gigs from time to time. 

Each summer the city of Tuscola has a community band gather to perform at the 4th of July celebration in Ervin Park. I play the contrabass clarinet in this band. 

I am also a volunteer at the Douglas County Museum and serve on the board as secretary. I also open the museum each Monday evening for pinochle for the members to play. I am also in charge of the flower boxes,which I am presently trying to reseeding annuals that tolerate dry conditions. 

I serve as secretary for the Tuscola Alumni Association, who puts on the annual Homecoming celebration and sponsors several scholarships to graduates from Tuscola Community High School. 

 In my retirement I have learned quite a bit about floral design and work part time at A Bloom Above and Beyond in Tuscola. I make fresh floral arrangements and also make a number of silk arrangements including cemetery pieces. I also grow a number of different flowers in my garden and use these to make arrangements for church each week in season. 

Since the late 80”s I have decorated my house extensively for Christmas each year. I have taken the last 2 years off from this for a break, but plan to resume decorating the front of the house again next year. I have won several awards in the community over the years for my efforts. In addition to community recognition, we were recognized by the News Gazette sponsored magazine At Home Magazine about 10 years ago with a feature article. At the owners request I have decorated the house in Arthur that is used for the Pumpkin house with decorations for the Christmas season for the last 8 years. The house won 3rd place in the local decorating contest this year. 

 I do love to travel primarily in the United States, but I have been to a few places in Europe and have plans to go to New Zealand this spring. Last year my partner Terry and I took driving trips to Asheville, Pittsburgh and the Finger Lakes, Minnesota, Utah and Arizona and to wineries and antique shops in Southern Illinois. 

If you could go anywhere, where would that be? And why…

I have been so many places already that I never thought I would get to see and experience, yet there is a whole world and universe out there to see. Rather than a place here on Earth, to be with my parents and grandparents and my loved ones again after I am done with this world would be my desire. I know most of them are in heaven and I sure hope they all are and I get to join them.

What is one thing nobody knows about you?

I grew up in the country next to the Kaskaskia River in the remote small town of Chickenbristle, Illinois with the best parents and family a kid could ever have. When i was 16 my parents and a few other parents started the girls biddy basketball league in Tuscola. My parents were the spearheads. My sister was in 5th grade, my Mom was one of the coaches, my Dad was the official, and another parent would be the other official. I swept the floor before and between games and after and I kept the scoreboard and clock for 3 years until I graduated from high school. Years later my sister was the coach for basketball and track at the grade school in Tuscola for over 30 years until her retirement. This all would not have been possible without my parents giving of themselves for my sister and for the girls in Tuscola, then and now.