Annual Report 2005
Grand Things Are Happening in Health Care

	Annual Report 2005
	Letter from the Chairmen
	Expansion and Renovation
	Cardiology
	Surgery
	Cancer
	Women’s Health
	Research
	Choosing the Right Doctor
	Working at Grand View Hospital
	Awards
	Financial Summary
	Expanding The Vision Campaign
	Development
	Annual Giving
	Mission

Development

Bill and Edna Miller led a quiet country life on Farmers Lane in Sellersville, right down the street from Grand View Hospital. Their home could have been on a postcard for the town. It was always trimmed and painted and picture-perfect. Throughout his life but especially in his retirement, Bill found great joy in making birdhouses and tending to his spectacular flower gardens. You could find Edna swimming, or wherever there was a lively card game underway. She also was a volunteer with the Souderton-Telford branch of the Grand View Hospital Auxiliary. She could be seen at the Annual Lawn Fete loading up hot dogs with her famous sauerkraut.

The Millers were hard-working people. Bill was a meat cutter and operated his own business in Sellersville for many years before going to work for Acme Markets in 1948. After 25 years with Acme, Bill retired in 1972. Edna had a real talent with numbers and joined Lemmon Pharmaceuticals as treasurer in 1951, a position she held for 28 years until her retirement in 1979.

In 1997, Mrs. Miller contacted the Development Office of the Grand View Health Foundation after receiving one of our mailings about estate planning and planned giving ideas. It was obvious from that first meeting that Edna had already done considerable investigation into Charitable Gift Annuities and how they worked. She knew she wanted to create a gift annuity that would pay her and Bill for the rest of their lives, with the balance becoming a gift to Grand View to help keep the hospital strong.

Up until this point in time, the Miller’s largest gift to GVH had been $100 to the annual fund. Consequently, a foundation representative found it somewhat startling when while sitting at their kitchen table, Edna proudly and with a big grin announced that they wanted to establish a $100,000 gift annuity. It was the largest gift annuity that Grand View had received at that time.

As the staff got to know the Millers through the years, Edna shared how her love of numbers had led her to her hobby of picking stocks. She followed her investments closely and regularly made adjustments in her portfolio. While this was not Bill’s passion, he absolutely loved giving to local charities, and there were many besides Grand View which benefited.

In 1998, the Millers gave up their home on Farmers Lane and moved to The Lutheran Community at Telford. Sadly, they had not been there long when in July 1999 at age 84, Edna passed away suddenly. Bill and Edna were very close and had never been blessed with children. Bill’s support network became his fellow residents at The Lutheran Community and his friends at the many charities he helped sustain.

One day in early October 2003, Bill called the GVH Foundation office and said he wanted to stop by. When he arrived, Bill was looking as bright and cheery as any of us could remember since Edna’s passing, as he presented the Foundation with a check for $25,000. His gift that day was the very first to the $8 million Expanding The Vision campaign, which is helping us to complete the $56 million capital building project and Master Facility Plan. Bill chatted for about 10 minutes before he politely excused himself, saying he needed to go because he had several other stops to make to deliver checks. “I think they will be happy to see me,” Bill said.

In December 2003, just two months after his visit, Bill passed away at age 95. He used to talk about making it to 100, but that was before he lost his beloved Edna. In his will, which Bill and Edna made together, the Millers directed that after taking care of family and expenses, the residue of their estate should be distributed to the charities they had supported during their lifetime. When their estate is settled, Bill and Edna Miller will have given more than $300,000 to the Grand View Health Foundation to help keep the hospital’s programs strong.

If the Millers were still alive, they could add so much detail to their journey from $100 donors, to gift annuitants, to major donors and estate planners. At Grand View Hospital, we’re pleased to tell the story of this loyal community-minded couple who lived modestly and gave generously.