Managing Editor
Workspace: Wolfson Children’s Hospital Administrator Larry Freeman
Larry Freeman laughs easily and contagiously, seemingly born with a constant smile and an eruptive chuckle.
It’s a nice ability, given his job.
As administrator of Wolfson Children’s Hospital, Freeman works with children, many of them chronically ill, and their families.
“I cry a lot going and coming,” said Freeman. “I don’t cry at work.”
Freeman, who turns 62 in December, will retire around yearend from the only job he’s had for 34 years. He was hired as the hospital’s administrator when he was 27. “Thirty-four years later, I have not received a promotion,” he says, punctuating it with that laugh.
Freeman’s office at Wolfson Children’s Hospital on the Southbank Downtown is a refashioned conference room. The plan was to keep the hospital, which opened in 1955 and moved into a new building in 1993, for medical and patient use only. But it made sense that the administrator needed an office presence.
Freeman, a North Jacksonville native, decorated the place himself, with his own money and not with hospital funds. “It’s all mine. That’s why it looks so junky,” he said. Laughing.
It’s packed with photos of family and Florida Forum speakers, who are world leaders brought in for a series of speeches to raise funds for the hospital.
There’s artwork given as gifts or bought at fundraisers. There’s an anecdote about most of the items and pictures and paintings.
Usually, though, his office features families and children who drop in to visit. The children can expect a toy or a teddy bear.
One little boy had never had a stuffed animal until Freeman gave him a “Wolfson Bear,” contributed by Stein Mart.
“I know of no more rewarding career than the mission of serving children,” said Freeman.
Wolfson, which has been recognized nationally, serves about 40,000 children a year through inpatient and outpatient services, he said. Those include about 10,000 a year admitted as patients.
Its core area is Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia, although 15 or 20 international patients visit each year for charity care specialized services, primarily heart treatment.
Wolfson’s patients range from those with mild issues to those facing the end of their lives.
Freeman is awed by “the bravery and courage of a child to face what they have.”
“The real heroes are the mammas and the daddies. They would run through fire to get the best care for their children,” he said.
“I’ve been doing this 35 years and I still get goosebumps.”
Wolfson, which is part of the Baptist Medical Center campus, serves children from birth through the age of 18, although Freeman said half the patients are age 6 or younger and are those born or diagnosed early in life with chronic conditions.
While Freeman’s been at the job for more than three decades, he started out with a degree in marketing from Florida State University.
He worked at JCPenney in college then joined the U.S. Army Reserves during the Vietnam War and ended up a licensed practical nurse who went on to earn a master’s degree in public health.
And that brought him to Wolfson Children’s Hospital.
Along the way, he married Christina almost 40 years ago and they raised two sons. Joshua is the head varsity basketball coach at Clay High School as well as an English teacher. Anthony is in financial services in Atlanta. They provided three grandchildren.
Freeman wants to retire to spend more time with his family.
“I love what I do,” he said. He also admires the almost 800 Wolfson employees, including more than 400 physicians, who care for the children.
Freeman said that when a child is diagnosed, “the team comes together and says, ‘we’re going to deal with this,’” he said.
“I call it magic,” he said.
Freeman clearly credits the quality of the staff for Wolfson’s success.
“I’ve had the privilege of working with the most professional, dedicated, well-trained and compassionate people in the world,” he said.
“They’re saints in my book.”
Freeman said there’s no answer to the perpetual question of why children suffer devastating, life-limiting and fatal conditions.
“Being a faith-based person, if I get to heaven, I am going to ask God, ‘Why the children?’” he said.
In the meantime, he will continue to spend time on the diverse tasks of administrator, including staffing, budgets, employee relations, speeches, advocacy, fundraising and serving on nonprofit boards that serve children.
And he’ll continue to walk the halls of the 180-bed hospital and visit the patients, families and caregivers.
“Kids and me really get along,” he said.
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