Editor’s Note: This is the second of eight stories appearing daily in the News Journal on the members of the 2017 Class of the Outstanding Women of Clinton County.
A family-practice physician for 40 years, Dr. Janet Gick is perhaps best known for her more than 16 years of passionate dedication to the Clinton County Homeless Shelter and for helping to bring newly trained family physicians to Clinton and surrounding counties. For these and other exemplary services to her community, she has been nominated to the Outstanding Women of Clinton County class of 2017.
Before coming to Wilmington, Dr. Gick worked at the Student Health Center at Ohio State University and the Columbus VA Hospital. She practiced at Main Medical in Wilmington and was on the Medical Staff of Clinton Memorial Hospital for 16 years before starting her position with the University of Cincinnati Residency Program in 1982.
For 17 years she trained family-medicine residents sent to Wilmington for their “rural medicine” rotation. Fortunately, many of her trainees chose to stay and set up practice in “rural” counties like ours.
Prior to her recent retirement, Dr. Gick worked for two years at Healthsource of Ohio’s Wilmington Family Practice.
The Clinton County Homeless Shelter, she admits, has become the focus of her “passion for community work.” Starting in 2000, she has assisted her husband — retired orthopedic surgeon Dr. Thomas Matrka—in the thorough renovation and continued maintenance and operation of the shelter.
Her untiring volunteer efforts, however, have extended to many other local charities. For the past six years, she has served as a “money mentor” for the local Habitat for Humanity, tutoring recipients in money-management strategies. Prior to its closing, she volunteered at the Clinton County Free Clinic and donated generously toward its goal of distributing medicine to those in need. She served on the board of the Clinton County United Way from 2006 to 2010, and for the past five years has been on the board of the Clinton County Health Department.
She and her husband have also created the Matrka Family Scholarship of $3,000, which has been annually awarded for the past few years to a Wilmington High School senior going on to a technical school.
During the last four years Dr. Gick has greatly enjoyed teaching medical-related classes for Wilmington College’s “Institute for Lifelong Learning” (“WILL”), an educational outreach program for older members of the community.
But perhaps the accomplishment closest to her heart is being the mother of three accomplished children: Laura, an ENT surgeon specializing in laryngeal and vocal cord diseases; Maria, a biologist specializing in cancer-cell formation; and Mark, the owner of his own highly successful construction company.
Tickets for the March 4 Outstanding Women of Clinton County luncheon at 11:30 a.m. at the Roberts Centre are $25 (cash or check accepted). Reservations can be made at the Wilmington News Journal, 761 S. Nelson Ave., Wilmington, OH 45177. The News Journal’s office hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. If you have any questions, please call 937-382-2574. Reservations will be accepted through March 1.
