June 27, 2016

Donald Lippencott, MSFS, of East Setauket was named John T. Mather Memorial Hospital’s 2016 Community Honoree. Derick George, MD, and the late William Konczynin, MD, will receive the 2016 Theodore Roosevelt Awards for service to the hospital and to the community.

The awards will be presented at Mather’s One Enchanted Evening gala on Oct. 14 at East Wind Caterers in Wading River.

Mather selects a special Community Honoree who has supported the Hospital and its programs over the years. The Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council created the Theodore Roosevelt Awards more than 50 years ago to honor those who demonstrate exceptional volunteer commitment to a member hospital and its community.

2016 Community Honoree

Donald Lippencott, MSFS

Lippencott joined the JTM Foundation Board in 2014. He has supported the Hospital through its many fundraising activities including the Golf Classic, Building on Excellence Campaign and planned giving. He also secured a $25,000 grant through New York Life.

A resident of East Setauket,, he recently challenged his daughter’s school to do a new stuffed animal drive for Mather’s HUGs program, which provides a new plush toy to every child who is a patient in the Emergency Department or ambulatory Surgery Center. He matched every donation made with a donation through his family foundation – generating more than 70 stuffed animals. He also is active on the board of Theatre Three.

Professionally, Lippencott is a principal of Lippencott Financial Group, a financial consulting firm. He has more than three decades of experience in the insurance, estate planning and financial services business. Since 1997, he has been a Member Agent of The Nautilus Group®, a resource for estate conservation and business succession ideas that is made available to a limited number of subscribing member agents. The Nautilus Group is staffed by professionals with credentials in law, taxation, accounting, insurance and finance. He also is an Investment Adviser Representative with Eagle Strategies LLC, a Registered Investment Adviser.

Lippencott has earned numerous industry and company achievements, including Life Member of the Million Dollar Round Table, the National Quality Award, and the 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015 Agent of the Year of the New York Life Long Island General Office. He is a recognized leader within the Suffolk Country professional financial services community and is a member of the Suffolk County Life Underwriters Association, the National Association of Life Underwriters, and former First Vice President of New York Life’s North East Agencies five times.

He attended Gordon College in Wenham, MA and Stony Brook University in NY. He holds a Master of Science degree in Financial Services from the American College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He currently serves on the board of NYLARC, NYLIFE’s agent- owned reinsurance company, and the New York Life Agents Advisory Council.

2016 Theodore Roosevelt Award Winners

Derick George, MD

Dr. George has served as Director of the Department of Anesthesiology at Mather Hospital since 2011. He is a Founding Member and the Assistant Managing Partner of Long Island Anesthesia Physicians (LIAP), LLP in Rocky Point, NY. LIAP has been a long-term major supporter of Mather Hospital.

Dr. George also serves as Chief of Pain Management, Chairman of the Joint OR Committee, and Member of the Continuing Education Committee.  He previously was an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at the Stony Brook University School of Medicine. He is certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology and the National Board of Medical Examiners.

Dr. George received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education at CUNY. He received his Medical Degree from New York University School of Medicine. At Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, he completed an Internship in General Surgery and a Residency in Anesthesiology. He was a Neurosurgical Anesthesia Research Fellow at Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Department of Anesthesiology.

Dr. George lives in Poquott, NY with his wife, Ingrid, and two daughters.

William Konczynin, MD (posthumously)

Dr. Konczynin of Setauket practiced family medicine in the community for 30 years. He practiced at Three Village Family Medicine in Setauket. He served as a member of a number of Medical Staff committees at Mather including Tumor Conference, Credentials Committee, Bylaws Committee, and the Ethics Committee. Most recently he was the physician advisor to the newly formed Back & Neck Pain Center at Mather Hospital.

Dr. Konczynin also was Director of the Emergency Room at St Charles Hospital for 17 years as well as Director of the Alcohol and Substance Rehabilitation Program, Director of Family Medicine and President of the Medical Staff. He served as the chief physician of the Three Village School District.

He and his wife, Barbara, a nurse, met while they both worked at Mather in 1974, he as an orderly and she as a nurse. He was attending Georgetown University at the time, and when he went to medical school in Guadalajara, Mexico, he and his wife would work at Mather during the summers. The couple has two children.

Dr. Konczynin passed away unexpectedly in June 2015.

John T. Mather Memorial Hospital is an accredited 248-bed, non-profit community teaching hospital dedicated to providing a wide spectrum of high quality healthcare services to Suffolk County residents, showing compassion and respect and treating each patient in the manner we would wish for our loved ones. Mather has earned the prestigious Magnet® recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), which recognizes healthcare organizations for quality patient care, nursing excellence and innovations in professional nursing practice. Mather also has received nine consecutive top “A” ratings from The Leapfrog Group for patient safety, the only New York State hospital to achieve that distinction and one of only 98 hospitals nationwide to receive an A score in each of the twice yearly rating periods. Mather also was rated four stars, the highest on Long Island, by our patients for their hospital experience, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.