$1 Million Donated Toward New Hospital : Oxnard: The gift comes from a builder. The new complex will replace the 79-year-old St. John’s Regional Medical Center.

An Oxnard builder’s donation of $1 million toward construction of the new St. John’s Regional Medical Center has pushed fund raising for the hospital well over its $4-million goal, officials said Tuesday.

Martin V. (Bud) Smith’s donation is the largest monetary contribution to date for the new facility, which will replace the current St. John’s Regional Medical Center at 333 N. F St. in Oxnard when completed in July, 1992, officials said.

The McGrath family, one of Ventura County’s dynastic farming families, donated 48 acres at Gonzales Road and Rose Avenue, the site of the $84-million hospital now under construction.

The remainder of the money needed for construction is coming from Catholic Health Care System of California and the medical center’s reserve fund, officials said.

Smith, who built the 22-story Union Bank Building in Oxnard, said he believed that it was time to “pay the hospital back” for the care he has received there. He said the donation came from his family’s personal foundation fund, which was established to help local charities.

“I have a warm spot in my life for the hospital,” Smith said. “One time I thought I was having a heart attack and another time I had a bleeding ulcer. It was nice having people standing by.”

With Smith’s contribution, the $4-million fund-raising goal has been exceeded by $750,000, Kaj A. Sorensen, a medical center official, said. “It’s a major boost,” Sorensen said.

But, Sorensen said, the hospital would still like to raise about $2 million more to help establish a solid endowment.

About 2,500 people have contributed toward construction, Sorensen said. He said officials decided to build the new medical center in 1988 because the old center had become outdated.

“There’s no parking,” Sorensen said of the old hospital. “And since it was built 79 years ago, there have been so many add-ons that nothing is coordinated.”

The new hospital will include 206 beds in private rooms in two four-story towers. Although plans call for the new center to have slightly fewer beds than the 282 beds in the current hospital, there will be more room for expansion, Sorensen said.

The hospital will also include a mini-mall with gift shops and a pharmacy. Also, medical center officials said the new center will have more room for outpatient care than the old hospital.

Plans for the new center show that it will scarcely resemble its predecessor. The new hospital will include play areas for children, atriums and garden terraces. A chapel with a large stained-glass window is planned for the center of the complex.

The emergency services department at the new hospital will be dedicated to the memory of Smith’s mother, Marjorie Vance Smith, Sorensen said. He said officials will decide later on which portion of the hospital will be dedicated to the McGrath family.