About GNHC

During the tumultuous period of the late 1960s, many people began to look closely at their communities, pitch in, and do something to remedy many of the problems we faced as Americans. In some ways, this is how Good Neighbor Healthcare Center came into being. In 1968, Dr. Robert M. Eckert, inspired by the evangelical ministry of the Church of the Redeemer Episcopal Church, left a very successful private medical practice, and opened what was then known as the Fourth Ward Kennedy Brothers Clinic, to serve the poverty–stricken neighborhoods near downtown Houston that included historic Freedmen’s Town. According to a newspaper account of the time, the clinic was named in honor of the then recently fallen Kennedy brothers, John and Robert, as well as Senator Edward Kennedy, by members of the Fourth Ward community. In fact, the community played a key role in the management of the clinic in the early years, beginning a tradition of involvement that has endured to this day...read more (Download Accessible PDF Plug-in)