In 1999, Stephen C. Shy, DO, and his colleague, Robert A. Hess, MD, founded Ohio Valley Physicians to provide emergency department staffing and management services to a struggling Lawrence County General Hospital in Ironton. Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, that small company is now OVP HEALTH, a Huntington-based employer of nearly 500 people across five states, providing emergency department and hospitalist services, outpatient primary care, and treatment for people suffering from substance abuse disorders.
Born Dec. 8, 1950, in Kenova, Shy was a 1968 graduate of Buffalo High School in Wayne County. Shortly after graduating, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he served for three years as a Green Beret Medic in the Airborne Unit, until a parachuting accident ended his military career.
Shy then enrolled at Alderson Broaddus College in Philippi, West Virginia, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1977. He then entered the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, in Lewisburg, West Virginia, graduating in 1982 with a degree as a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine.
From 1982 to 1996, Shy served as a family physician in private practice in the Huntington community of Westmoreland, while also seeing patients at both St. Mary's Hospital and Cabell Huntington Hospital. He then joined Huntington Internal Medicine Group, where he met and formed a close bond with Hess. He also served on the Wayne County Board of Education from 1984-90.
Shy's legacy lives on today in his wife of 49 years, Nancy; his three children, Stephen C. Shy II, DO; Stacey Shy; and Stephanie McCloud, all of whom serve in leadership positions at OVP HEALTH; and his nine grandchildren, many of whom are preparing to become the third generation of the Shy family to work at the company.
