WEST ISLIP — Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center here is marking its 50th anniversary in 2009 with a series of events celebrating the staff, patients and supporters who have been part of its history. The Daughters of Wisdom, who founded St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson in 1907 and the Maryhaven Center of Hope there in 1930, answered the call to minister to Suffolk County’s south shore residents and opened the doors of Good Samaritan on May 18, 1959. Many of the sisters who have worked at the hospital were honored guests at a luncheon May 21 following Mass celebrated by Bishop Murphy in the hospital’s chapel.

“It doesn’t seem like 50 years,” said Sister Marguerite White, a member of the original staff who returned for the Mass. She posed for pictures with long-time friend Ann Murdock, a laboratory worker who started when the hospital opened and is still working there today. “I love my job,” said Murdock.

She remembers the hospital opening with then-state-of-the-art equipment, some of which was not available anywhere else on Long Island. “I’ve seen technology grow and grow,” said Murdock, who started at 18 as a general lab technician and attended night school to specialize in transfusion medicine.

Daughter of Wisdom Sister Joan Canfield recalled coming to the hospital as a “brand-new nurse” shortly after it opened. Sister Joan said she remembers so many good people in all the departments who helped make the hospital a great place. Two other employees who were there on the day the hospital opened, Bridget Zienaiwicz and Ted Shiebler, returned for the Mass. Shiebler, who was the hospital’s director of public relations even before it opened, recalled that it was Bishop Kellenberg who selected the name of “Good Samaritan” for the hospital.

Charles Bové, executive vice president and chief administrative officer, first worked at Good Samaritan in 1980, but his association with the hospital goes back even further. “I was born here,” he said. “My father, a dentist, was one of the first to be affiliated with the hospital.”

He said it was a “privilege to try to follow in the footsteps” of the Daughters of Wisdom who started the hospital. He also acknowledged the great contribution of the members of the Guilds of Good Samaritan, volunteers from the local community who are active in fundraising and volunteer service.

In his homily, Bishop Murphy spoke of Christ’s charge to his followers to be “faithful disciples.”

“This is what Good Sam has been doing since May 18, 1959, when the 175-bed hospital opened its doors. The men and women here at Good Samaritan are real and concrete witnesses of His love.”

“I am grateful to all of you for accepting this call,” he said, noting that it applied to everyone who is part of the hospital community from doctors and nurses to kitchen staff and maintenance workers.

“What a difference your gifts have made,” the bishop said. “Think of all the families ... who knew you were their best and brightest hope ... here they have encountered God’s grace through your ministry.”