A welcome legacy
<p>The new main lobby at Kootenai Health is dedicated to Hugh McCall for his legacy gift of $4.4 million to benefit the hospital expansion. From left: Liese Razzeto, Kootenai Health Board of Trustees chair; Mike Chapman, Kootenai Health Foundation Board of Directors chair; and Jon Ness, Kootenai Health CEO.</p>
Douglas Hugh McCall, a former Hayden resident and philanthropist, left a legacy gift to the Kootenai Health Foundation of $4.4 million. The unprecedented gift was unrestricted, with the suggestion to invest the funds in something extraordinary to benefit the health care of the community. The lobby of the new east expansion at Kootenai Health will be dedicated in his honor.
“This major gift may be the largest single private donation in our community’s history,” Mike Chapman, Kootenai Health Foundation board chair, said.
“A gift of this magnitude allows us to develop a facility that includes state-of-the-art equipment, spaces that have been beautifully designed with patients’ comfort in mind, and a convenience northern Idaho patients and families deserve,” said Jon Ness, CEO of Kootenai Health. “Our community has a wonderful history of philanthropy. Kootenai Health is honored to be the recipient of such a generous, life-changing gift.”
McCall was born May 1, 1909, and passed away May 23, 2004. Handwritten notes from McCall highlight his care and commitment to the hospital and his name can be found on donor walls within various buildings around the hospital campus. He was friends with leaders throughout the community, including leaders of Kootenai Health and the Foundation. Two of McCall’s friends, Tom Richards and Ace Walden, shared the work of Kootenai Health and on many occasions brought the next areas of growth for the hospital to McCall’s attention. In 1987, McCall gave the first of his many personal gifts to the Kootenai Health Foundation for the Cancer Center construction in honor of his first wife, who passed away from cancer. Some of the projects he felt strongly about include the Cancer Center, Health Resource Center and the Heart Center.
McCall split his time between Hayden Lake and his home in Indian Wells, Calif. He was an avid golfer and 30-year member of the Hayden Lake Country Club. In his time here, he became well known as a kind, generous person and philanthropist.
“Golf was his passion. Hugh belonged to the Hayden Lake Country Club as well as El Dorado in Palm Desert,” Katie Brodie, Hayden Lake Country Club member and Kootenai Health trustee, said. “He could always be counted on to be a giver. He lost his eyesight in his later years, but never his giving spirit.”
During his relationship with the hospital, spanning 18 years, McCall wanted to make a lasting mark and determined to treat the hospital and foundation like family. It is only fitting that his name be associated with the welcoming of the community into the new space that will serve and care for them.
“We are grateful for McCall’s foresight and investments in Kootenai Health,” Chapman said. “This remarkable gift highlights the importance of how a thoughtfully planned estate gift, no matter the size, provides a personal legacy and a means to pay it forward and benefit others. This is a transformational gift that will impact the health care of our region for generations to come.”
For more information on the Kootenai Health Foundation, visit kh.org/foundation or call (208) 625-4438.