March 31, 2017 at 5:11 p.m.
The Howard Young Trust: How it started, what it does
The Howard Young Trust: How it started, what it does
In 1972, one of the most wealthy art dealers in the United States, S. Howard Young, passed away at the age of 94. A regular visitor and lover of the Northwoods, Young left a generous gift to the area where he owned a home and spent many summers. The $20 million gift amazed the nation and stood as one of the largest personal donations in the history of the United States. In 2017, that amount would have been the equivalent of well over $100 million.
Young left the bulk of his estate to the hospital, with $7 million earmarked for building a new hospital. The only caveat: the name be changed from the Lakeland Memorial Hospital to the Howard Young Medical Center. In the fall of 1974, a plan was endorsed by the North Central Area Health Planning Association's board of directors.
In May of 1975, ground was broken on the new facility, and eventually opened it's doors in 1977.
The June 1977 dedication ceremony was famously attended by Young's niece Elizabeth Taylor and her husband John Warner, where Taylor spoke to the crowd.
Howard Young's donated "Girl With Doves" statue was also placed at the south end of the hospital that day, where it still stands.
The remainder of the $20 million donation was placed into an endowment trust fund, the annual income from which could be used by the hospital for general purposes. Today, that trust holds roughly $50 million, with four percent withdrawn annually for the Howard Young Medical Center's operational costs. This amounts to approximately $2 million per year to help fund the nonprofit hospital.
That trust is monitored today by Mark Pitman, marketing and stewardship committee chairman for the Howard Young Foundation.
It is because of the foresight and benevolence of S. Howard Young that the HYMC is able to continue providing health care services to the Northwoods of Wisconsin.
Evan Verploegh may be reached via email at [email protected].
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