Ford Titus' career began a few years after Medicare was introduced, and it is ending shortly after the passage of federal legislation to revamp the health care system.
Titus, who stepped down as the chief executive of ProHealth Care last week, spent his entire career of more than 41 years at Waukesha Memorial Hospital and ProHealth.
In that time, he has seen advances in medicine that once would have been considered miraculous. But he also has seen nonprofit hospitals become big businesses and health care spending become one of the country's most significant economic challenges.