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Editor: Henny van Dijk www.uthro.org March, 2020

The Bryan Museum ...

Ken Jones Remembered ...

The Event Committee has gotten another great trip organized for us on Thu. March 19—the Bryan Museum. Opened in 2015, the museum, is located in the historic Galveston Orphans Home an exquisite Renaissance Revival-style building surrounded by beautiful landscaping in a historic neighborhood in Galveston. It houses the Bryan Collection, one of the world's largest collections of historical artifacts, documents, and artwork relating to Texas and the American West. Many artifacts, historical objects, documents, sculptures - and paintings. Each has a written explanation and more information available on a touch-screen next to it. The museum is "Dedicated to the settlement of the American West." There are Pre-Columbian stone points, beautiful horse saddles, a Civil War violin, an amazing ship model, a Conquistador helmet.... LOTS of wonderful historical artifacts, Spanning 12,000 Years of History. The Museum is handicapped accessible, and has an elevator on the rear of the building to get to the second floor.
The bus will leave OCB at 10:00 so be there at least 15 minutes ahead of time so you don’t miss it. We will be at the museum from 11AM—1PM. The museum fee is $14 to be paid by March 12. Make your check out to UTHRO and send it to Margaret Zambrano, 20903 Imperial Ridge Ln., Spring, TX, 77379.
Contact also Barry Rittman so he knows how many people will ride the bus.
Email barryrittman@gmail.com or call: 713-542-8108
Afterwards we will have lunch at Joe’s Crab Shack on the Seawall on your dime. We plan to be back at OCB around 3PM. Henny van Dijk

On Feb.7 Ken Jones one of our longtime members passed away and as is customary I have asked several of his colleagues to send us their memories of him. I also dug out an article written by Ken about his trips to Honduras to help those in Copan with their much needed dental care. Henny van Dijk
On February 7, 2020, we lost our good friend Ken Jones. Ken and I shared many memorable experiences over our 50 years of friendship. He was a professional colleague in pediatric dentistry both in private practice and academia. We were fellow adventurers, scuba diving buddies, river rafting partners, travel companions, and mission trip teammates.
I came to know a more personal side of Ken during our many mission trips to Honduras. Ken was a kind, compassionate and dedicated man who gave years of dental care to the Chorti Indians living in Otuta near Copan Honduras. It was treacherous to travel up muddy roads to the mountainous village every day. The Chorti spoke a dialect of Spanish that was difficult to understand but Ken always tried. It was an extreme environment without electricity or water which made dentistry very difficult. The only services we could provide were extractions, mostly on adults and not part of our pediatric dentistry backgrounds. Since we had little dental equipment we would alternate doing treatment or assisting. Each morning the line of patients was half a block long and remained that way for most of the day. We were fortunate to have Drs. Susie Seybold, Bob Tate, and Dr. David Tang come on some of these mission trips to help us.
Ken and I did this for 13 years. You come to really know, respect and admire someone sharing these demanding experiences and adventures. I treasure all the memories of Ken. We have indeed lost a good friend. Tom Wild
Ken retired in 2001, the same year that I did. He and his wife, Erma, were listed as UTHRO members in the 2003 directory, but I recall that she died sometime after that while they were on a cruise in Europe. He continued coming to UTHRO meetings and events I always enjoyed my conversations with Ken. Jim Vogel
PS: in November of 2011 I asked Ken to write about how he spend his time in retirement and I have attached his in-depth description of his involvement in Honduras. Henny van Dijk

March, 2020 The Evergreen Page 2

The Valentine Luncheon ...

Aging-in-Place, The Smart Home

Constance Johnson, PhD and Joanne Hickey, PhD
communicate with Denise Rios, RN on the display screen

Photos and article by Henny van Dijk

Some 34 UTHRO members came out to the Olive Garden to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The reason is usually only partly for the food, because as the images show it is often to reconnect with those we haven’t seen for awhile and catch up. I let the images speak for themselves and I hope you’ll recognize faces of the days when you were working together or you haven’t seen. The exchanges were spirited, the food Italian and because of that many would recall their visits to Europe or Rome, again a great way to have lunch. There is one exception I will make that is to Gill Rittman who not only organized the shindig, but brought cute Valentine presents for all as well the dessert—tasty cupcakes—great job Gill and of course Barry too who had to be an absentee due to a touch of the flu.
All in all a classic UTHRO event, friends, food, ambiance.

A gathering of some 16 presenters discussing different aspects of the technologies used in the “Smart Home” were given three (!) minutes each to inform the well attended symposium of their research. The keynote speaker, Dr Dyer, spoke to the growing trend of seniors who stay in their homes and the need to be able to that safely. Using a number of AI gadgets some “off the shelf” products like the Alexa and the Apple watch while are others developed precisely for this purpose makes this one-bedroom apartment a unique testing ground. Part of this symposium was the chance to see the Smart Home in action and it is impressive. From the robot that enables the client to directly speak to a health professional, to simple commands via Alexa to turn down the lights, start the TV or the microwave to sensors in the bed that can check your well-being. That brings us to the most significant obstacle to overcome—privacy— when the gadgets are checking your well being in the bathroom and what will happen with all that data. Demonstrations on the quality of sleep or the camera that tracks your motion through the apartment are all incorporated in the space which is quite roomy and comfortable. Medical equipment makes it possible to do your own glucose testing, BP measurements or dialysis. I asked about the approximate cost of all those pieces of equipment and Dustin Brannon, the IT specialist from the Med School, quickly estimated it to be around $3,000, which was surprising and probably does not include the robot. The fact is that there are millions of elderly, infirm, or mentally disabled people in the world who suffer from chronic loneliness and lack stimulation. These patients also tend to be people who require regular check-ups from caretakers, which can be very time-consuming. “Buddy robots” solve both of these problems at once, and are truly making life better for a lot of people. They look like iPads set on top of a mini Segway, which have found a key role in the medical field as a way to bring top doctors and diagnostic expertise to underserved communities and to figure out a cost-effective way to bring technology to help people in low economic status.

March, 2020 The Evergreen Page 3

The Latest on Dementia Care

“Feelie Hearts”...

The National Research Summit on Dementia Care, Caregiving and Services, organized by the National Institute of Aging will take place on March 24 and 25, 2020.
This is the second summit of its kind and its goal is to identify what is known and what needs to be known in order to accelerate the development, evaluation, translation, implementation, and scaling up of comprehensive care, services, and supports for persons with dementia, families, and other caregivers. The summit is focused on research that is needed to improve quality of care and outcomes across care settings, including quality of life and the lived experience of persons with dementia and their caregivers.
The anticipated outcomes include:
Recommendations for research priorities
Identification of evidence-based programs
Research milestones
This meeting is open to the public and can be joined via videocast. Registration is free and available at the following link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/national-research-summit-on-dementia-care-caregiving-and-services-registration-66688913335.
(*) The National Institute of Aging (NIA), one of 27 Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), leads to a broad scientific effort to understand the nature of aging and to extend the healthy, active years of life. NIA is the primary Federal Agency supporting and conducting research on Alzheimer’s dementia.

DON’T FORGET NOW, YOU HEAR!!!

This is the final reminder!
As of March 31 you will no longer receive the newsletter if you did not renew your membership?
The renewal form can be found at our website www.uthro.org The cost of renewal is $15.
Please mail your information and a check
made out to UTHRO and send to
Margaret Zambrano
20903 Imperial Ridge Ln., Spring, TX, 77379

Two years ago I asked your help with an inaugural program the Cizik School of Nursing initiated—PON—POWER OF NURSING and at that time according to Susan Cooley, UTHRO member and enthusiast about this program, UTHRO contributed a lot of hearts. Now the Faculty co-leaders of PON Linda Brown and Francine Snow asks for our help again, so please respond as well as you did before. We have some time as they don’t need the hearts till about July. Why the little hearts? During the second session of the five session Power of Nursing course, nursing students experience a moment that makes a difference. As students break into small groups to share their personal stories of vulnerability, loss and healing, a basket filled with small, fuzzy, multicolored “feelie hearts” is passed around the room. "Feelie hearts" are about 2-3 inches and can easily fit in a lab coat or scrub pocket. Each little heart is handmade by volunteers and reminds us that the human heart is soft, tender and worthy of care. The "Feelie Heart” is a symbolic gift that generations of students and faculty taking the Power of Nursing & Healer’s Art course have found both meaningful and valuable. Nursing and medical students are invited to take a “Feelie Heart” and carry it with them as a reminder to hold their own hearts and the hearts of colleagues, patients and their families with tenderness. Across the country, those who take the course cherish this small heart that reminds us of our shared humanity. The learning processes enable faculty and students to reflect and contribute to the collective wisdom of the group. There are no experts, no right or wrong answers, and a spirit of interactional safety and curiosity is encouraged. It is a 15- class hour elective course to anchor students to their personal principles and the core values of their profession and can serve to help them navigate through the inevitable conflicts that arise in training and practice. It offers a safe learning environment for a personal in-depth exploration of the time-honored values of service, healing relationship, reverence for life and compassionate care. More so than any other reason, many become inter-ested in the profession because they feel called to it and want to do work that helps people. So if you can help Dr Brown by making those “feelie hearts” she and I know the nursing students would be very grateful.
Thank You!

Henny van Dijk

UTHRO
The University of Texas Houston Retiree Organization
1851 Crosspoint, Suite 1.204
Houston, TX 77054
To update your address or phone number
please contact us at 281-655-1983

And Now For Something Completely Different...

“windows” app in the Middle Ages

For those of us who are struggling with the new and improved world according to
Apple, Microsoft or Google, I found two very early examples of computer
technology us old folks can understand.

UTHRO OFFICERS 2020
President Kathryn Bradley 281-239-7980 kbradley77469@gmail.com
Vice-Pres Tena Lummus 832-569-4176 nanapoo1@att.net
Secretary Charlotte Childress 281-240-6898 charlotte.childress@yahoo.com
Treasurer Margaret Zambrano 281-655-1983 20903 Imperial Ridge Ln., Spring, TX, 77379 zambrano55@sbcglobal.net
Web Administrators Henny van Dijk, Pat Grealy & Glenn Schreyer Newsletter Editor Henny van Dijk

UTHRO likes to welcome for our members
New UTHealth Retiree Benefits Analyst: Lorrie