Beecher Hunter

Beecher Hunter, the president of Life Care Centers of America for the last 14 years, will retire from his post overseeing the chain’s 208 nursing homes on Nov. 2. He will remain in an advisory role until the end of the year, announced LCCA Chairman, CEO and founder Forrest Preston.

Hunter’s rise up the company ladder began in 1986 as vice president of communications. On his first day with Cleveland, TN-based Life Care, he joined Preston at the airport for a three-day trip to facilities in Kansas and Missouri. 

Now 82, he has rarely stopped moving since. Before joining Life Care, he enjoyed a 20-year career as a respected editor at the local Cleveland Daily Banner newspaper.

He will be succeeded by Todd Fletcher, a 30-year company veteran who is currently the vice president of Western Division Operations.

Preston called Hunter “a faithful advocate of the highest quality of care for the men and women we serve, and a leader in recognizing and praising the work of their caregivers, whom he calls God’s chosen angels to deliver His message of love and compassion.”

It is a reputation the gentleman journalist acknowledged he has worked hard to cultivate among Life Care’s 30,000 employees. 

“I would like to be regarded as being helpful to our associates, developing them and helping them understand that corporate leadership really cares about them and is eager to support them in everything they do,” Beecher told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News on Thursday. “I’m fairly certain I’m the only person in the company, other than Mr. Preston, who has visited all 208 of our facilities at least once, and many of them many times.” 

He said he has a “great sense of satisfaction” in the training programs that developed during his tenure. “All companies focus on that, but we’ve developed, and not just because of me, some state-of-the-art training facilities and equipment (at corporate headquarters). It’s unrivaled.”

Under Hunter’s guidance, Life Care also became well known for its outstanding publications, which colorfully depicted both residents’ life stories and employees’ accomplishments.

COVID complications

He noted that not being able to travel among the buildings and staff during recent pandemic restrictions has been one of his biggest regrets. The first recognized U.S. outbreak of COVID-19 occurred at the Life Care facility in Kirkland, WA, in February. 

He said he wished he could have been on hand to support the staff there, even as they were being vilified by a public and administration not yet awakened to the full dangers of the virus that would paralyze most of the nation and many parts of the world. He said that Life Care has since established a “fallen heroes” memorial at company headquarters to honor those who died from the virus, including 14 staff members, who “answered a call of duty and served in an exemplary way.”

Hunter said that he and Preston began generally discussing his retirement about two years ago. In January, he told the chairman this would be his final year and that when the pandemic hit, it put all talks on hold, extending his career if anything.

“I recognize with my age and the ability to put a strong emphasis on having somebody who came up through operations in the president’s office, that would be good,” Hunter said. “It’s a bittersweet kind of time. My wife, Lola, and I don’t have any children, so Life Care has been my family, personally and professionally, for 34 years, much of it out in the field. It will be hard to leave, but it’s time.”

What comes next

Fletcher will become Life Care’s 11th president. He joined the company fresh out of college as a facility executive director in Barstow, CA. He currently oversees 84 skilled nursing centers, lives in Washington state and plans to relocate to Cleveland, TN.

Todd Fletcher
Todd Fletcher

Preston touted Fletcher’s “natural leadership abilities, honed by valuable experience in his relationships with residents and their families, and deep appreciation for the passion and commitment of his coworkers for the mission to which they are called.”

Fletcher, in turn, praised Hunter’s “authentic and unique brand of servant leadership” in a local news report announcing the personnel changes.

In 2012, the American College of Health Care Administrators honored Hunter with its distinguished service award for “decades” of support. Bill McGinley, the group’s CEO, lauded him on Thursday, explaining that Hunter was largely responsible for ACHCA’s signature mentor program for early career administrators. 

“On a personal level, Beecher has been a friend and mentor to me, and his retirement is a loss to our profession,” McGinley told McKnight’s. “I fondly recall visiting him at the LCCA headquarters and he generously spent the entire day with me showing me the headquarters and several nearby nursing homes. I will sincerely miss him.”

A Tennessee Tech University graduate, Hunter said he looks forward to writing several books in retirement. The first will feature some of the many inspirational messages he has sent to Life Care colleagues daily since 2002 via internal channels. Well known as an outstanding story teller, he added that subsequent efforts could include books on the lighter side of healthcare, family relationships and lessons about long-term care and its “terrific servant leaders.”

Not so interested in traveling internationally other than perhaps to explore his family’s full heritage in Ireland, he said he also looks forward to more involvement in the First Baptist Church of Cleveland. 

A past leader of many local civic organizations in recent years, he said he has been approached about potential consulting roles in various long-term capacities.

“I’ve had some encouragement to do that,” he said Thursday, “but let me see what retirement actually looks like first.”