As many of you know, our beloved Dr. Packard passed away earlier this year. Since then, we have gathered ourselves and picked up where he left off, honoring his memory and legacy through continuing the highest caliber of service and care that he provided his patients. We are striving, every day, to honor his legacy by building the dental office that Dr. Packard always envisioned.
We wanted to take a moment and share a little bit about Dr. Packard. For those of you who had the opportunity to meet him, you’ll smile and reminisce on his adventurous stories and the upbeat enthusiasm he had for life – and for his work with patients.
For those of you who did not have the opportunity to work with Dr. Packard here at Creekside, we wanted to give some insight into our practice’s rich history and let you know why we strive to provide such an above-and-beyond service to everyone who passes through our front doors.
After marrying his love, Judy in 1978, Dr. Packard graduated from UCLA in 1984 and began his dental career by working for the family dental practice in Oceanside, California.
In 2005, Dr. Packard and his family moved to Kennewick after deciding that Washington was an ideal place to build his own dental practice. His three brothers had recently moved to Washington and started a dental practice in Yakima, inspiring Dr. Packard to open his own office – and Creekside Kennewick was born.
Although dentistry was very important to Dr. Packard, it never eclipsed his love for his family, his church, and adventure in the outdoors. He was an avid hunter and fisherman throughout his life. He enjoyed nature in all its varieties. He loved seeing the beauties of the earth while flying his own plane, scuba diving, and traveling with Judy. He always had a beautiful rose garden, fruit trees, and his vegetable garden is lovingly deemed “the eighth wonder of the world.”
Dr. Packard created a strong legacy here at Creekside of quality care and made it a priority to assemble a team who is passionate about what they do.
With the addition of his nephews, Dr. Kimball Larsen in 2007 and Dr. Bennett Larsen in 2015, Dr. Packard worked to create a future for Creekside that met his high standards for patient care. His vision for Creekside was that it would always combine genuine caring and compassion with education and experience to provide the very best in dental care in the Tri-Cities area.
To that end, we pride ourselves on the team that Dr. Packard helped build. With multiple employees who have remained with Creekside for the entire 16 years the practice has been open, to fresh faces eager to learn the “Creekside way,” it is our goal that you will always experience the quality dental care that has been present since our inception.
We miss Dr. Packard deeply and to say the past few months have been an adjustment would be an understatement. We all expect to see his smiling face come around the corner again at any moment.
But the spirit and vision that he had for his dental practice will always be present in our work here. We offer the best dental care in Kennewick and the Tri-Cities area, and we can confidently say that it is because of the standard that Dr. Packard established for us to forever follow.
From the Creekside Team:
The team at Creekside assembled a trove of photos and videos of Dr. Packard’s time here at Creekside. We wanted to give it a permanent link on our website so that past, present, and future patients would be able to see how impactful Dr. Packard was to the Creekside family.
From Dr. Packard’s Daughter, Christine:
Antique cars, Packard cars, were Dad’s favorite. He spent hours with his kids working on a Packard. I remember him taking this car to a show in town and just driving around people would turn to get a better look at the Packard. Dad chose hobbies that brought his family together.
Last week all of our family had s‘mores together around Dad’s fire pit. All 20 cousins were together having fun remembering Grandpa. Every year Dad would make a fire for hot dogs and s’mores with them.
Adventure was one thing Dad was great at! A plane made going on trips even more exciting. (Mom and Dad watched the total solar eclipse from his airplane!) Last year we took family trips with Dad to the Redwoods, Oregon coast, and San Juan Islands. I would let Dad know the closest airport and we would pick up Mom and Dad to go exploring with us. I will always treasure these memories.
From Dr. Packard’s friend and fishing buddy, Alex:
I just found out we lost our dear friend, Floyd Packard, due to pneumonia complications at age 63. He was, and I am not exaggerating in any way when I say, “the kindest person I have ever met.” Always a kind word, friendly smile, helpful, trustworthy, genuinely concerned about you and your family. Simply put, he was a Boy Scout on steroids. Our fishing and hunting trips will be less joyful without him there. He will forever be in our hearts and thoughts, and we are happy that we had the privilege to spend part of our lives together, a few times every year.
Marianne Obstar, former Creekside employee:
I was Dr. Floyd’s office manager for 14 years, from 2005 when Creekside’s doors first opened until moving back to Montana in 2019. When I first met Dr. Floyd, he was intimidating. He was very direct, but as I got to know him, I realized that not only was he an exceptionally talented dentist, he was an amazing boss and a wonderful human. He had the most delightful traits that made him completely endearing. I would coach new hires not to be initially offended by that overly serious, laser-focused persona. Dr. Floyd was the ultimate professional and expected the same from everyone around him. If you came to work on time, worked hard, and exemplified the character of a true team player, you would earn his trust and respect. And then you would see the other side of him that we all treasured so much. His infectious chuckle and giggle, his little quirks (he might eat dessert before lunch) and of course his VERY competitive nature. With a twinkle in his eye, he would take you down during a team building competition in an instant. (If you hit him with a water balloon during a parking lot water fight, you knew you had better run fast). Months and years later, those new employees would often confide in me — as was the case with the existing team — that Dr. Floyd was someone they had grown to admire and respect immensely, and they thought SO highly of him. We all looked up to him. Many years ago, I attended a dental conference and the speaker said that many dentists could be challenging to work for from a management standpoint. They learned dentistry in school but often had shortcomings in their abilities to manage a business. This was certainly not the case with Dr. Floyd. He had real business savvy and knew so much about everything; he could have run a Fortune 500 company. Through the early inevitable growing pains, and then in periodic times of chaos, he was the calm, undisputed captain of our ship. Dr. Floyd, I want to thank you for everything you taught me. Thank you for your many kindnesses and for your extreme generosity. Thank you for your patience, humility and for always being fair and objective. Thank you for dressing up as a Star Trek character for Halloween, even though you didn’t like to wear anything to work but a dress shirt and pants. Dr. Floyd’s absence will leave a hole in so many hearts. My sincere condolences to his beautiful family.
From Dr. Packard’s son, Kevin:
This picture is typical of Dad in his later years. He always had at least one grandkid in his lap, and oftentimes two or three. He loved spending time with the grandkids. If he wasn’t holding them, he was reading to them, playing on the ground with them, or just talking to them. He loved each one of them.
From Deb Hawkins, former Creekside employee:
I worked with Dr. Packard from day one upon opening Creekside until last year. He always enjoyed our office events. He was very competitive!! He always had kind and caring words. He sponsored my boys hockey, attended their weddings, and would come for dinner while Judy was out of town. Will miss his smile and supportive talks.