Do you want to play a game?

Gresham native Jim Froese markets his board game invention, Hospital

By Shannon Wells

The Gresham Outlook, Sep 14, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

Carole Archer / The Outlook

Gresham resident Jim Froese hold his new board game Hospital (the game of life), where it is selling at the gift shop at Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center in Clackamas on Thursday. Gift shop volunteer Ilse Mulligan is on the right.

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The popularity of parlor games may change with the times, but interactive family fun never goes out of style. That’s how Jim Froese, creator of the brand-new Hospital board game, sees it anyway.

The 52-year-old Gresham native conceived Hospital as an homage to classic American board games. That, and the simple fun and family bonding they inspired in the days before DVDs, Xbox games and TVs in every room of the house.

“I think people are missing out when they don’t take time to sit and play a board game around the table after dinner,” he said. “I want to get people back to doing things with their families, rather than (children) taking off after dinner and doing things on their own.”

To glance at Hospital’s whimsical, multicolored box, with its wacky characters and balloon-lettered logo, you’d swear it’s been around forever. Built around the premise of acquiring — and losing — money by navigating a health-themed bureaucratic labyrinth, Hospital evokes games of old. It also addresses timely concerns involving health care, insurance and financial stability.

Froese, who markets Hospital under the banner of Jimbo Enterprises, spent the summer making the rounds of stores throughout the region. So far, he’s placed copies of Hospital in Borders Books in downtown Portland and Bridgeport as well as hospital gift shops at Adventist and Kaiser Medical centers.

That the game fits seamlessly next to classic amusements like Clue, Boggle, Life and Scrabble is a testament to Froese’s vision and tenacity.

“I thought about it, or at least had it in my mind for at least 10 years,” he said. “I never knew exactly how to proceed until I was actually making it. I thought it would be too overwhelming to make myself.”

After working for years in banking, hotel management and landscaping with varying levels of success, Froese decided on a change. Tired of playing the 9-to-5 game, in 2000, the Gresham High School graduate decided to pursue his own dream.

“There was no incentive to strive to get somewhere,” he said of the workaday world. “I had to figure out a way, not to get rich, but to get ahead.”

Once he decided on a board game, he drew from his father’s experience selling medical supplies to doctors and hospitals.

“I learned a lot of things, a lot of concepts and ideas I could incorporate into the game, from him,” he said.

Continuing the family theme, Froese conceptualized Hospital as a cycle of life. He looked back on his own experiences, and those of his friends and family, to realize Hospital’s various stages. He even used first names of relatives to inspire the characters — and caricatures — that populate Hospital.

“I thought of everything that would happen in your life,” he said. “From the beginning of childhood to old age.”

Measle Suites, Insect Bite Way, Maternity Ward, Acne Way, Chicken Pox Suites and Incontinent Street are some of the places a player might land with a roll of the dice, a pick of a card and a move of the tiny hospital pieces. A stop at any spot means dealing with such “professionals” as Dr. JoAnn Acutie, pimple-faced Dr. Stan Zit, and vampire-toothed blood collector Dr. Marie Flowinglife.

The game cards portray overzealous, needle-wielding school nurses, money-hoarding quacks, and red-faced patients in all manner of compromising positions.

To bring these zany characters to life, Froese searched far and wide for the right illustrator. After hundreds of responses to a classified ad, he found Ray Robbins, an illustrator from the Clackamas area. The match was mutually inspiring.

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