OGDEN -- The Family Counseling Service in Ogden has selected Ron Thornburg, president of its Board of Trustees and editor for news and circulation at the Standard-Examiner, to replace Dr. Bill Endy as its executive director.
Endy headed the Family Counseling Service, which provides mental health counseling for the poor on a sliding scale, for 17 years. He announced his retirement earlier this year, saying he's simply tired.
The Board of Trustees' experience replacing Endy gave some indication of why he was tired.
Thornburg, who has been president of the board for a year and a half, said the first effort failed. Endy did both executive work, including staff supervision and fundraising, and clinical work treating patients.
"When Dr. Endy announced he was going to retire in March, we started looking for someone to replace him that had the same qualities and abilities as Dr. Endy," Thornburg said, but found that if that person existed, "they didn't live in our community."
The board decided to appoint a full-time executive director to run the agency and a part-time clinical director.
Thornburg was chosen as executive director and Curtis Watson, who has worked as a counselor at the center for 10 years, as clinical director.
Watson, like all the counselors at the center, works part-time while pursuing a doctoral degree in social work at the University of Utah. He is also clinical director at Pathways Real Life Recovery in Salt Lake City and an adjunct professor at the U of U and the University of Phoenix.
Thornburg has worked at the Standard-Examiner for 16 years. He started in 1994 as managing editor of the newsroom and in 2003 was promoted to editor for news and circulation.
He has an MBA from Utah State University and has served on the boards of numerous community organizations in Weber County, including the Ogden/Weber Chamber of Commerce.
Thornburg said the decision to end his newspaper career was hard, but he said switching to a nonprofit charity is not a complete break in some respects.
"I see this as an opportunity to put a capstone on my career," he said.
"I always looked at working for newspapers as public service not completely driven by making a buck. So this is an opportunity to very clearly help people in our community."
He said stepping in for Endy will be hard.
"What's really tough to follow is his passion for helping low-income people," Thornburg said.
He said Endy took over the Family Counseling Service 17 years ago when it was on the verge of going out of business and not only saved it, but has kept it in the black, financially, ever since.
Thornburg said he will leave the Standard-Examiner as of July 16. Endy's final day at the Family Counseling Service is July 31.
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