FOR RELEASE AFTER 2 P.M. DEC. 14

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CONTACT: MARSHA TAPSCOTT

(662) 377-3193

HCF HOSTS DEDICATION CEREMONY

FOR ROBERT WYLIE REED MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN

TUPELO, Miss. -- R.W. “Bob” Reed’s legacy of leadership for North Mississippi Medical Center was formally recognized Dec. 14 in a private ceremony in the NMMC lobby.

Reed family members and friends attended a dedication ceremony for the Robert Wylie Reed Memorial Fountain. This commemorative fountain was made possible through a donation to the Health Care Foundation of North Mississippi from the R.W. Reed Co. and his family.

Reed was a founding member of North Mississippi Community Hospital in 1935 and chairman of the board of directors of North Mississippi Community Hospital/NMMC from 1937-1956. He played an instrumental role in raising funds to build the hospital and provided invaluable leadership for more than 20 years.

Reed was among a group of community leaders who convinced a charitable foundation in New York to provide funds to build a 50-bed hospital in Tupelo. Despite the Great Depression and a devastating tornado, these leaders managed to raise $35,000 as the local share of the Commonwealth Fund hospital construction grant.

In “Hospital on the Hill: The History of Medical Care From Tupelo Hospital Through North Mississippi Medical Center,” Jack Reed Sr., recalled in a 2001 interview the time when he was about 12 and his father R.W. “Bob” Reed, was deeply involved in the fund-raising campaign. “I remember very well my mother saying during the campaign they were having a hard time raising the money that was necessary…and they came to him and said Bob would just have to do it. So he just took off from the business and devoted whatever time it took to raising the money it took for a successful campaign. He really believed in that hospital.”

Instead of reporting to work, Reed spent his time at City Hall and stayed there until he raised the necessary funds. “Stories have it that Bob Reed had a phenomenal way with the people of Tupelo. He could really raise money,” said Dean Hancock, president of the Health Care Foundation of North Mississippi. “It’s been said that he would call a meeting and make a list of how much each person could give and they would all agree on it. That’s how things were done then.”

Reed was one of nine Tupelo leaders who formed the nonprofit North Mississippi Community Hospital Corporation, “organized for the general welfare and as a benevolent undertaking” according to the incorporation papers. In addition to Reed, the incorporators were B.A. Rogers, Medford Leake, R.F. Reed, W.B. Fields, V.S. Whitesides, F.N. Johnson, J.P. Nanney and J.H. Ledyard.

Fund-raising for the hospital began in 1935 and the 1936 tornado devastated much of Tupelo before work was complete. The hospital, located on the outskirts of town, was not damaged.

Opening exercises for the new North Mississippi Community Hospital were held Oct. 3, 1937 in the Tupelo High School auditorium. Reed presided over the ceremony, which had about 1,000 people in attendance. A front-page story in the Tupelo Journal reported the hospital is “a doctor’s dream equipped with the most modern devices known to the medical profession.”

Reed served as president of the hospital’s board of directors until his death, and J.P. Nanney took over the leadership roll in November 1956.

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