Good Shepherd Nursing Home residents and staff honored Dr. William Mercer, right, this week for his dedication to medicine and the nursing home's residents. Welty Corp. CEO Donald R. Kirsch, left, presents Mercer with the award. (Photo provided)

WHEELING — Good Shepherd Nursing Home staff and residents on Friday honored Dr. William Mercer “for the caring and selfless way he practices medicine.”

Staff said Mercer’s medical skills and kindness “have been a blessing to Good Shepherd residents.”

The reception was also organized to celebrate the national honor that Mercer recently received for groundbreaking programs he launched while serving as the Wheeling Ohio County Public Health Officer. The American Public Health Association (APHA) bestowed the Milton and Ruth Roemer Prize on Dr. Mercer for Creative Public Health Work.

Welty Corporation CEO Donald R. Kirsch said he was not surprised to learn of the doctor’s prestigious national honor.

“Dr. Mercer has taken wonderful care of Good Shepherd residents for decades. He is a talented and genuinely caring physician. We congratulate him on this well-deserved honor,” Kirsch said.

Mercer’s award recognized the “Joe To Cool To Smoke” campaign, which he created to teach children about the dangers of smoking. Mercer was a cartoonist in his youth whose favorite comic strip was Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts,” and he envisioned using the Peanuts character Snoopy to get his anti-smoking message to children.

He reached out to Schulz’s son Craig for permission to use Snoopy in the county’s anti-smoking campaign. While the organization rarely approves use of the Peanuts characters, Schulz readily gave his blessing, and the “Joe Too Cool to Smoke,” campaign was born.

The APHA award also recognized Mercer’s work with Project HOPE, which stands for Homeless Outreach Partnership Effort. Project HOPE was a street medicine program started by Mercer in 2006. It was affiliated with the Wheeling-Ohio County Public Health Department in 2015, and then became Project HOPE.

The Project HOPE team consists of Mercer; nurse Crystal Baue; Dr. Tom Wack; Dr. Steve Przybysz; Maryanne Capp, DNP; and many other volunteers who care for people in homeless shelters and those who live on the streets. The team of physicians, nurses, social workers, pastoral care providers and other professionals provide basic medical care, food, water, clothing, follow-up appointments and information on services that people without homes can access.

Howard Gamble, administrator of the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department, and Jeannie Schulz, widow of cartoonist Charles Schulz, nominated Mercer for the APHA Award. They and more than a dozen Wheeling residents with whom Mercer has worked sent letters of support, as did the 17th U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona and U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia.

The APHA Committee said it was impressed with Mercer’s creativity and innovation, noting that Joe Too Cool to Smoke and Project HOPE “demonstrate your commitment, collaboration, and passion in addressing public health issues at the street level and policy level while building cross-sector community partnerships.” Other recipients of APHA Awards this year included U.S. Senate President Charles Schumer. Previous recipients of other categories of APHA Awards include Dr. Anthony Fauci, Michelle Obama and Dr. Jonas Salk.

Born in Wheeling, raised in Warwood and educated at West Liberty State College and West Virginia University, Mercer always knew he’d return to Wheeling.

“I’m a home boy,” he says.

He and his wife, whom he calls “the lovely Gigi,” have been married 41 years, and have four children: Chris, Steve, Andy and Taylor.

Mercer is board-certified in family medicine with an added qualification in geriatrics and is a certified medical director of post-acute and long-term care. “I’ve always been drawn to geriatric patients,” he said. “It’s rewarding and stimulating to figure out their problems and find ways to help.”

His private medical practice thrived, and over the years, his patients have brought him hundreds of Peanuts neckties, statues, t-shirts and other items. Initially just his pediatric exam room reflected his love of the comic strip characters, but as his Peanuts collection expanded, every spot in his office was filled with the cheerful memorabilia. The collection is so impressive that when Mercer retired from private practice, he decided to donate it to the Wheeling Toy and Train Museum, where it will be displayed on an entire floor.

Mercer said Jeannie Schulz agreed his project was a perfect, non-commercial way to use the character.

“It has been my pleasure to have our dear Snoopy associated with Dr. Mercer’s program. All of us at ‘Snoopy Central’ have appreciated being associated with Dr. Mercer and the innovative program he created and nurtured, seeing his dedication to the health of West Virginia youth,” Jeannie Schulz said.

Mercer spends most of his time these days caring for his patients who reside in nursing homes. He was touched by the party that his patients and Good Shepherd staff threw for him to celebrate his APHA Award.

“The staff is wonderful. From the administration on down, they really care about their residents. Good Shepherd is fantastic, and I love going to work there,” he said.