75 years of service
In 1937, the North Mississippi Community Hospital was a modern 50-bed hospital. Seventy-five years later, it has grown into a 650bed regional medical center that is the flagship of a six-hospital system.
COURTESY PHOTOS
NMMC born from Tupelo Spirit In 1935, the Commonwealth Fund It’s hard to imagine Tupelo notified without North Mississippi Mayor J.P. Medical Center. Nanney that The big limestone and Texas Tupelo was Nanney R.W. Reed granite buildings with 650 pa- Feemster under considtient beds that now spread eration for across several blocks began munity, not doctors or govthe foundation’s next project, with two red brick buildings ernment. along with McComb and on a lonely hill south of TuTupelo’s first hospital, Provo, Utah. pelo. which dated to 1920, was loAfter visiting McComb and Without the intersection of cated in an old YMCA buildTupelo, the Commonwealth persistent city leaders, a New ing near the corner of Green Fund chose Tupelo, citing the York-based health care founand West Main streets. It was community spirit of service dation and a tornado, the hos- inadequate as a hospital – and the support of local pital on the hill might have one of the wards was inside physicians. never come to be 75 years ago the old swimming pool. “There is no doubt of the this month. Without outside help, general and wide-spread The effort to build a new, building a hospital was becommunity interest in the modern hospital started in yond the reach of Tupelo. In project,” according to Com1926 when Dr. L.C. Feemster, 1930, Tupelo was a small rural monwealth Fund archives who was the chairman of the farming community of 6,300. quoted in the “Hospital on first Tupelo hospital board, “There were no truly the Hill,” a 2002 chronicle of wrote requesting information wealthy people in Tupelo,” re- the hospital’s history. from the Commonwealth membered Jack Reed Sr., To make the hospital a realFund, a health care foundawhose father R.W. “Bob” Reed ity, Tupelo would have to put tion based in New York City was a key figure in the hospi- up $40,000 toward the buildthat had begun a program to tal’s early history. “There were ing and equipment costs. build hospitals in rural areas. no big plantations, no huge A group of young business“They wanted to experilandowners. It was largely a men were able to get about ment with a new kind of middle income community.” $17,000 in pledges, but couldhealth care,” said Gerald Tupelo wasn’t selected for n’t get any further. City leadWages, who joined the hospi- the Commonwealth’s initial ers turned to Bob Reed, who tal staff in 1969 and now round of hospital projects, was the founder of Reed’s Deserves part time as North but city leaders stayed in con- partment Store and later Mississippi Health Services tact with the fund, even when served as the chairman of the vice president for external re- it appeared there was little hospital board for decades. lations. The private hospital chance Tupelo would be se“He just took off a week would be owned by the com- lected. and raised the money,” said BY MICHAELA GIBSON MORRIS DAILY JOURNAL
Jack Reed Sr., who was a little boy at the time. In all, 2,790 people pledged the $40,000, and Tupelo was formally accepted as the Commonwealth Fund’s eighth project. Tupelo would need to create a charitable corporation – which still oversees the hospital to this day – and have the money in hand by Jan. 1, 1936. For its part, Commonwealth Fund not only put up the money, it provided expertise for the building and the operation, Wages said. “They didn’t just build a hospital and leave,” Wages said. “They oversaw it for the first 15 years.” The first decision – choosing a site well out of town down the newly built U.S. Highway 45 – was greeted with great concern by the physicians, but the architect’s insistence the other sites were too small proved prophetically insightful. In the spring of 1936, the hospital effort was in trouble. Volunteers were able to collect only $33,572. “Pretty much everyone who was able to give had given twice,” Wages said. On April 5, an F-5 tornado roared through Tupelo, killing hundreds and leveling great chunks of Tupelo. The Com-
monwealth board voted to accept the cash Tupelo had on hand and also assumed the cost for extending utilities to the site – which would have been the city’s responsibility. The Commonwealth Fund ultimately put up nearly $300,000 to build the 50-bed North Mississippi Community Hospital. The hospital construction was a source of great pride and curiosity to the community. “It was a pretty big deal,” said Norris “Piggie” Caldwell, who remembers his teachers at Tupelo Junior High School – housed in part of what is now Milam Elementary – took his class on two or three field trips to watch the hospital being built. “There was nothing like it in Tupelo. We were all in awe of it as young people.” The hospital was dedicated on Oct. 3, 1937, and between 3,000 and 4,000 people toured the facility. That early community support continues to shape the hospital’s future. “Why here and not other places?” said John Heer, North Mississippi Health Services chief executive. “The people who lived here made it happen. It’s part of our culture. (We ask) what’s needed and how do we make it happen?”
Document: E001NMC102112.eps;Page: 1;Format:(254.00 x 520.70 mm);Plate: Composite;Date: Oct 18, 2012 17:25:52;JPC 72 DPI
Section E | October 2012 | A supplement to the Daily Journal