DAYTON — When one chapter closes, another opens.

After guiding the Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center through one of the most challenging times in health-care history, Director Mark Murdock is getting ready to continue his story at the VA Medical Center in Syracuse, N.Y.

“It’s like the military. Everybody has to leave sometime,” said Murdock as he looked at military memorabilia in his office.

Murdock is a retired Air Force veteran and is leaving behind his role at the Dayton VA Medical Center to become the executive director at the VA hospital in Syracuse. 

“My father was a World War II veteran and received care there,” he said.

It’s a move that is his home in more ways than one.

“One of the reasons I’m going to New York is because New York is my hometown. My wife and I were in the military, and we moved around and I think one of the things we wanted for our children was to have a hometown. Dayton has been a tremendous hometown for them,” he said.

Murdock spent 14 years of his 18-year VA career in Dayton with his wife, four daughters and three granddaughters.

“We were able to give them what we had and that’s really special,” he said.

Murdock became director in February 2020 before the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic was just weeks away from sweeping the U.S.

“COVID was the number one priority, keeping everybody safe and making sure that we did things that we never really did before. The amount of screening, masking, testing — it was just tremendously monumental as far as the amount of work that our folks had to do and they responded magnificently,” he said.

More than 40,000 veterans are not only enrolled at the Dayton VA but also rely on the hospital for comprehensive care, making it different than many civilian hospitals.

“Surgeries went down, procedures went down, so then we had a period where we had that pent up demand where people needed to come in for things like colonoscopies or surgical procedures that were put on hold during that period," he said. "We needed to make sure we got those veterans in as quickly as we could."

Murdock helped guide not only the patients, but also more than 2,700 employees.

As he prepares to close this chapter, he says his time in Dayton will always be special.

“The thing that makes Dayton special, our history is almost 160 years old. We were one of the first three original VA’s. So, the work that really goes into maintaining this historical campus is just tremendous and there’s just a tremendous story to tell here and it’s been great to be a part of that,” he said.

Murdock begins his new role in Syracuse July 30 and will oversee the care of more than 50,000 veterans.

While search for his replacement is underway in Dayton, the associate director will fill in.

For more information, visit the Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center website.