Between 1974 and today, Dr. John Rugge has saved many lives and improved the quality of life of thousands by founding and operating the Hudson Headwaters Health Network, a not-for-profit network of eleven community health centers that provides care to residents, visitors and travelers within 2,400 square miles of the southeastern Adirondacks. The network also participates in the medical education of physician assistants.

When Rugge’s heroism began, there were virtually no medical facilities in the large Adirondack/Lake George region north of Glens Falls, N.Y., and community efforts could not persuade doctors to set up shop. The situation was desperate. Fresh out of medical school, Rugge agreed to accept a temporary six-month assignment to serve the local people. Thirty years later, he is still around.

Reared on a dairy farm, Rugge possesses the ability to serve the daily needs of people skillfully and faithfully and to foresee and plan for future needs. He is now working with the community to replace the inadequate Chestertown health center with a new and expanded medical facility.

More than half of the people treated at the organization’s Chestertown, N.Y., facility, where Rugge still practices, are uninsured or under-insured. No one is ever turned away.

For more information about this organization please visit www.hhhn.org.

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