Gary Gorman and his wife, Tina, were one of the first guests at the Inn after Irene purchased it in April 2022. With each visit, we learned more about Gary’s career, as a chiropractor and teacher, a lifelong Rotarian, and his volunteer work on behalf of senior citizens in his community during Covid. When we made the decision to honor people at The Ampersand, Gary was someone whose good deeds, determination, intellect and commitment to others we wanted to share with our Ampersand community. We tapped Tina, Gary’s partner since high school, to provide the details.

Gary has been a practicing Chiropractor for 40 years, and was a twenty-year adjunct faculty instructor at Springfield College in the Rehabilitation and Disability Studies and Health Science Departments. He taught courses in applied anatomy and integrated medicine.

In addition to Gary’s work, Gary’s running career spanned more than four decades. In 2009, he ran the first-ever Mass Dash, a fundraiser for cancer research. Teams of runners ran a 200-mile overnight relay that began in the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts and ended at Boston Harbor. Gary ran three Mass Dash races as the ‘senior’ member of a multigenerational team. His first marathon was in Boston (2013) and he finished the race 20 minutes before two bombs exploded near the finish line.

Three years later, in 2016, Gary was diagnosed with severe mitral valve damage and underwent open heart surgery. Within days of the surgery, Gary was breaking all Cardiac Unit records by walking a full mile daily. His motivation, determination, and competitive spirit catapulted him through the cardiac rehabilitation process. Just a little more than one year after this surgery, Gary ran a 5K warm-up race, and the next day, a half-marathon in Dublin, Ireland.

Gary’s passion for track and field is a lifestyle that he has shared with countless others through coaching, officiating, mentoring, and scholarships. In 1995, Gary created a scholarship that continues to this day. Each year, a deserving Randolph High School (NJ) senior is awarded the Dr. Gary M. Gorman Alumni Track Award for dedication and leadership in promoting a unifying team spirit among his teammates. To date, 27 Randolph High School seniors have received the Gorman scholarship.

Gary continues to serve as a volunteer coach with the East Longmeadow High School girls’ team, and was also recruited to assist at Hampshire Regional High School and Hampshire College in Amherst. In 2012 and 2021, the Massachusetts State Track Coaches Association awarded Gary the Assistant Coach of the Year, Western Massachusetts, for both outdoor and indoor track. Both professionally and personally, Gary promotes fitness, health, and wellness to his patients, students, family, and friends through his lifestyle and example.

Gary has devoted countless hours to his local community through service projects and volunteer work. He served on the Greater Springfield CYO Basketball Board of Directors long after his daughter graduated from the program. A longtime Rotarian, Gary served as President and was awarded the Paul Harris Fellow. He served on numerous Rotary committees and participated in dozens of projects. Following 9/11, Gary spent two days volunteering in New York City providing chiropractic treatments for fire fighters, police, and other first responders. During the 2020 pandemic, the Westfield Senior Center was closed to the public for more than a year. A daily curbside meal distribution program was established with the help of a skeleton crew and two amazingly dedicated volunteers, one of whom was Gary. When it became obvious that this initiative was a marathon and not a sprint, he and Tina offered fitness, educational, and entertainment programs for Westfield’s older adults on their local cable channel. Gary and his daughter Grace created a series of cable television exercise videos for adults of all abilities, which continue to be aired locally as well as in communities across the country.

Gary’s positive attitude, thirst for knowledge, voluntarism, and dedication, has earned him the respect of his colleagues, patients, students, friends, and family. To his list of admirers, we proudly add the Ampersand guests, who now have the privilege of getting to know Gary and his multi-talented wife, Tina.