$30-Million Bequest to Benefit Calif. Hospital Expansion
February 25, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
A Southern California children’s hospital has received $30-million from the estate of a local businessman whose only previous known donation was a used computer, reports The Orange County Register.
Children’s Hospital of Orange County will split the gift from Robert Tidwell, a retired investment banker who died in 2009 at age 87, between clinical programs and construction costs.
The hospital is undergoing a $585-million expansion and renovation that will boost its capacity from 238 to 404 beds and add a surgery center, to be named for the donor.
A year after donating the computer, Mr. Tidwell, who had no immediate family and lived modestly, toured the hospital and pledged to leave it his entire estate, which he said would amount to a few million dollars, according to the Register.
