HMH Foundation receives a $2.5 million gift from Rita and Dr. Robert Robbins
The Hardin Memorial Health Foundation (HMHF) announced a $2,500,000 gift from Rita and Robert Robbins, M.D.
The Hardin Memorial Health Foundation (HMHF) announced a $2,500,000 gift from Rita and Robert Robbins, M.D. – the largest in the Foundation’s history and one of the largest announced in our community’s history. The couple hopes to donate a grand total of $5 million with a planned future estate gift. Robbins, a retired Hardin Memorial Health (HMH) surgeon and longtime entrepreneur and his wife Rita, a retired nurse, helped HMH establish a philanthropic Foundation many years ago and again when it was reconstituted.
Their unrestricted gift includes recent cash donations of more than $1,250,000 and prior donations of art, property and cash and a planned future estate gift.
“Rita and I are so proud of HMH’s growth and strength,” Robbins said. “We are committed to helping secure our region’s healthcare system which is one of the best of its size, today and in the future. We hope we can encourage others to name the Hardin Memorial Health Foundation in their estate plan and to invest now in HMH. Providing the highest quality healthcare requires all of us participating in providing HMH support and monetary donations.”
HMHF Chairman Joe Prather called the gift beyond extraordinary.
“Rita and Bob are visionary and have such passion for both our regional healthcare system and this community” said Prather. “As founders of the original HMH Foundation a quarter century ago, it seems only fitting and so meaningful that the first seven figure gift to the HMH Foundation would be from these two HMH legacies.”
HMH President and CEO Dennis Johnson echoed Prather’s sentiment and said that given Baptist Health’s promise to grow and expand services and invest millions of dollars in HMH, the timing of this significant private donation is even more exciting.
“There is no way to adequately express our gratitude for this incredible gift, especially at this important point in HMH history,” Johnson said. “We may even name a future project in the Robbins’ honor to commemorate their investment of time, talent and treasure in HMH.”