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By Tom Stafford, Staff Writer Updated 8:48 AM Monday, March 22, 2010

SRRINGFIELD — Joseph C. Shouvlin will be remembered as “one of the great leaders we had here,” said businessman Richard L. Kuss.

A business leader on the state level and a powerful Catholic voice in the city, Shouvlin will be remembered this week as a founder of Mercy Medical Center.

Now Springfield Regional Medical Center Fountain Boulevard Campus, the hospital will largely close March 29 after 60 years of operation.

Shouvlin (1900-1976) was a graduate of the Harvard School of Business Administration who was associated with National Supply Company, Bauer Brothers and C.E. Bauer. He was the youngest son of Springfield business pioneer P.J. Shouvlin — and a man people listened to.

“I spent a lot of time with Joe. I had a high regard for him,” said Fred Leventhal, the last president of City (later Community) Hospital.

Representing the two hospitals, Leventhal and Shouvlin squared off to determine which hospital would take care of which service.

“We didn’t go to boards. We didn’t go to the newspaper,” Leventhal said. “We negotiated. And his word was good.”

His word was good in part because he worked in a time when local business owners held sway over local matters.

Long time real estate man Dick Link said Shouvlin was also effective because he would “put his money where his mouth is,” generously supporting civic causes of all kinds, and helping to build the current Catholic Central High School as well as Mercy.

Kuss described Shouvlin’s style as “Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead,” and Link said that in Mercy’s early days, Shouvlin had a match in Sister Mary Cecilia, the hospital’s first administrator.

Link tells the story of two prominent businessmen getting into a heated turning-to-profane argument in the hospital only to have the sister run them out like little boys.

“They left,” said Link, who said the Sister “ran that place like an iron fist. And that was the end of the show.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0368 or tstafford@coxohio.com.