Atmore Community Hospital officially welcomed new administrator John Tucker into the fold Monday, Sept. 19, and just over a week later the Atmore community got their chance to greet him during a two-hour reception Tuesday night in Mayson Auditorium.

Tucker takes the reins at ACH following the promotion of former administrator Bill Perkins to Vice President of Operations for Baptist Health Care in Pensacola. Tucker comes to Atmore, along with his wife Laura and two children, Emily, age 10, and Ethan, age 7,, from Pocahontas, Ark. where he served as CEO for Five Rivers Medical Center for five years.

Tucker said so far his transition into the community has been a good one.

“It’s been great,” he said. “The family hasn’t moved yet, so things will be better when we all get here. But everything has been great. The staff are just wonderful here at this hospital. Physicians have been great. I’m just really excited to be here and to get to work.”

Tucker, who has already been inducted into Atmore’s Rotary Club, said he looks forward to getting to know the community he and his family will be living in.

“I just learned of this opportunity from a friend and he thought I would be a good fit here and it’s just all worked out,” he said. “My wife’s parents lived in Daphne for a few years in the middle nineties so were are already kind of familiar with the region.”

Tucker will bring with him to ACH plenty of experience. Prior to his position at Five Rivers he served as CEO of the Dallas County Medical Center in Fordyce, Ark.; instructor at Harding University in Searcy, Ark; director of operative services at White County Medical Center in Searcy.