In the News

VBMC-Brownsville Lobby Dedicated
In Honor of Catherine Stillman

BROWNSVILLE, April 18, 2006  – The main lobby at Valley Baptist Medical Center-Brownsville was dedicated in honor of longtime Auxiliary Volunteer Catherine Brown Stillman April 18. James Springfield, President and CEO of Valley Baptist Health System, spoke of the legacy of both the hospital – which was the first hospital established in the Valley – and the Stillman family during the dedication.

The lobby has been named the Catherine Brown Stillman Lobby in honor of Mrs. Stillman and in recognition of a generous contribution that she made to VBMC-Brownsville. Mrs. Stillman seemed delighted with a new plaque that was unveiled in her honor, as well as very happy to see her friends, including those in the Auxiliary.

Mrs. Stillman has served over 16,000 hours in the Gift Shop, which was enlarged and remodeled within the first year of Valley Baptist’s purchase of the hospital in July 2004. Mrs. Stillman started volunteering at Mercy Hospital (now VBMC-Brownsville) in 1965.

Mrs. Stillman’s family was also involved in donating land to the Sisters of Mercy for what eventually became Brownsville’s first hospital.

VBMC-Brownsville CEO Jim Wesson noted that improvements to the lobby – including a new front desk, new furniture, and freshly-painted walls – help make a good first impression to visitors at VBMC-Brownsville. He added that VBMC-Brownsville is instituting many other improvements, including a new Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, new lab equipment, and restoration of a historic chapel which is currently taking place behind the main hospital building.

“We’re a work in progress,” Mr. Wesson said. “Twenty-one months ago Valley Baptist purchased this hospital. We had a vision of what things could be like. We continue to see things for what they can be -- not what they are.”

Mrs. Stillman’s name -- along with that of the VBMC-Brownsville Auxiliary, which is generously helping with the chapel restoration project -- are among the first names on a beautiful new “Legacy of Life” Recognition Sculpture in the lobby which honors generous contributors to VBMC-Brownsville. The sculpture is unique because it depicts some aspects of Brownsville’s history, such as the old Sisters of Mercy Hospital and the historic Immaculate Conception Cathedral, in addition to the current VBMC-Brownsville building. The sculpture also depicts the Rio Grande and palm trees. The sculpture was provided by Ann Sweeney Dunkin and family and Sandra Sweeney Wilson and family, in loving memory of their parents, Eloise & Tom Sweeney.

A palm tree on the sculpture which bears Mrs. Stillman’s name reads “An Unbroken Promise Since 1923,” referring to the beginnings of the Valley’s oldest hospital and the involvement of the pioneering Stillman family. “The Stillman family is embedded in the history of Brownsville,” Mr. Springfield said as he thanked Mrs. Stillman for the family’s generosity.

Mrs. Stillman married Dr. James Stillman in 1952, and after many years living in the New York area, they returned to Brownsville, which had been home to Dr. Stillman’s family for generations. Mrs. Stillman has been active in various civic organizations for decades. She first volunteered with the Junior Service League of Brownsville at the Well Baby Clinic, and she has also been very involved with the ASPCA Humane Society and the Stillman House Museum in Brownsville. She has supported many other charitable interests, including the Lower Rio Grande Valley Nursing Scholarship Fund and the Dr. James Stillman Scholarship Fund at Harvard Medical School.

For more information on the Catherine Brown Stillman Lobby and the Legacy of Life Recognition Sculpture, please contact Sandra Sweeney Wilson, Foundation Director for VBMC-Brownsville, at (956) 698-5440.