The Golf Tourney That Built a Hospital

Because I believe in the impossible, I have resumed my pool therapy in the Dolores Hope Building of the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, firmly convinced that my artificial knees will recover the agility of a frog and I will rediscover my vague waistline.

The Eisenhower Medical Center is a large hospital surrounded by other medical buildings and doctors’ offices. It started with a golf tournament and, on Nov. 30, the center will celebrate its 20th anniversary.

In 1960, a group of men started the Palm Springs Desert Golf Classic. (The winner that year was Arnold Palmer.) After the first year, the men decided the tournaments should raise money for a charity so people would become more involved. A number of people with wealth and influence--and delighted to offer both--hit upon the idea of building a hospital.

A tragedy in 1961 firmed their resolve. Clarke Swanson, the head of Swanson Foods, had a heart attack on the Thunderbird course in Rancho Mirage. He died minutes before he reached Desert Hospital in Palm Springs, 14 miles away.

His wife, Florence Swanson, was on the board of the hospital planned by the golfers.

One of the golf group, Milt Hicks, thought the golf tournament needed a star. He asked Bob Hope to lend his name, and Hope agreed. Since then, the tournament has been the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

The seed money for the hospital came from the 1961 tournament, and Bob and Dolores Hope donated 80 acres of land for the project.

It was to be called the Palm Desert Community Hospital, and the plan was for an emergency facility, because several people besides Clarke Swanson had not survived the trip to Palm Springs.

Dolores Hope was chairman of the board, and the late Freeman Gosden of the “Amos and Andy” radio team was a member. Gosden lived in Thunderbird, near former President Dwight Eisenhower. “We thought it would be nice to build a memorial to President Eisenhower,” he said in an oral history of the hospital. “He and his wife Mamie always enjoyed their winters at Thunderbird. So the board decided Eisenhower Medical Center would be the name of the fine hospital we planned.”

The board discarded the plan for having only an emergency facility because members felt there was a need for a full-service hospital near the center of the Coachella Valley.

Gosden asked the former President if he would agree to have the hospital named for him. Eisenhower said: “Well, Freeman, it sounds like a good idea but we’d better ask Mamie’s permission. Go and talk to her.” Gosden did and she agreed.

But despite the heft of the board, whose members included former ambassador to Belgium Leonard Firestone and the late Justin Dart, they were not yet home free.

The Stanford Research Institute, in 1967, came back with a feasibility study: A new hospital in the area wasn’t needed. In addition, some doctors were not eager to change their affiliation with Desert Hospital.

The board of the projected hospital went in a bus, urged on by Dolores Hope, to make a plea to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors. They got permission.

On Nov. 27, 1971, two years after Eisenhower’s death, the dedication of what was to be a 239-bed hospital was made by then-President Richard Nixon, Pat Nixon, then-Gov. Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, and Bob and Dolores Hope. Mamie Eisenhower spoke to the crowd by telephone.

There are now 11 buildings on the campus, handsome buildings set in acres of lawn.

These include the Betty Ford Center for the treatment of chemical dependency and the Barbara Sinatra Center for physically and sexually abused children. This year, construction will begin on an orthopedic center.

On Nov. 30, the board, the staff and hundreds of valley residents will celebrate the 20th anniversary with a gala.

The party will also mark the 10th anniversary of the Annenberg Center for Telecommunications, built to hold conferences, meetings and lectures for the medical profession.

The gala will be a ball at the Westin Mission Hills Resort. Melissa Manchester will sing. Walter and Leonore Annenberg are the guests of honor.

It’s a long way from a golf game at Thunderbird to a hospital with a worldwide reputation.