Memorial Health System
ABILENE - Memorial Health System has announced that after two years of training with Herman Hoffman, the previous director of plant operations, Ryan Crist stepped into the director role on Nov. 1.
Crist has worked for MHS for 17 years now. He came to Memorial Health System after seeing an open position in maintenance for Village Manor. At the time, he was self-employed and felt he needed to find a job that would provide good benefits for his growing family. Eventually, Village Manor promoted him to maintenance supervisor. In 2019, he transferred to the hospital to begin working alongside Hoffman to learn as much as he could before Hoffman decided to retire. He was fortunate to be a part of many different projects over the last two years and add to his skill set.
Abilene became home to Crist in 2000 after moving from Salina where he grew up and graduated from Salina Central High School. He and his wife, Kristin, have five children; Michael, Kailin, Katharin, Olivia, and Ava. Kristin works for Farm Bureau Financial Services in Salina.
MHS has benefited greatly from the years Hoffman served as the director, and will continue to do so with Crist taking the lead.
“I have enjoyed learning the maintenance and operating systems of the hospital from Herman,” said Crist. “We have a good maintenance crew with some great new hires over the past couple of years.”
The department is full of capable employees who have various skills in electric, plumbing, construction, yardwork, carpentry; you name it they can probably do it! There have been many projects that the employees of this department have been able to tackle without having to hire external help, which in turn has saved MHS a lot of money over the years.
Hoffman still remains in the department as one of the crew. He plans to be completely retired soon, but until he is, he still contributes his strong work ethic to the department, and of course, offers his expertise to Crist and the team whenever it is needed.
“He has been a good mentor and has left me with a good vision for the future,” said Crist.