The seeds of the Obici Foundation were planted
in the mid-1940s by Amedeo Obici, founder of Planters Peanuts. After
the death of his wife, Louise Musante, in 1938, he decided to build
a hospital in Suffolk as a lasting legacy to her. The hospital would
also continue his philanthropy in the community by providing Suffolk’s
citizens with local, quality healthcare.
For about three decades, proceeds from the trust funded new equipment
and building expenses for the hospital. In 1985, The Obici Foundation
was officially established to oversee the funds Amedeo Obici left
after his death. During the late 1980s and 1990s, the Obici Foundation
continued to fund hospital renovation and equipment projects and
also started to fund some small community outreach projects designed
to improve health and health care for medically indigent individuals.
In 2002 the Foundation used a substantial portion of the trust funds
to help build a new modern hospital in Suffolk.
When the hospital was merged into Sentara Healthcare in 2006, a
new private foundation, the Obici Healthcare Foundation, was formed.
The benefits from the merger were immediate and substantial. The
debt Sentara assumed from the construction of the new hospital removed
the Foundation’s obligation to directly support the hospital.
Sentara also gave a substantial one-time cash gift which more than
tripled the Foundation’s endowment. Both of these steps enabled
the focus to expand beyond the original goal of providing healthcare
to the local community to now include a community service dimension.
In keeping with Mr. Obici’s
concern for the delivery of health care, the Obici Healthcare Foundation’s
mission is to improve the health status of residents of Suffolk
and the surrounding communities. This will be accomplished by addressing
the unmet needs of the medically indigent and uninsured, and by
supporting programs which will prevent and reduce illness and disease.
The Foundation is a new independent entity unrelated to any other
health organization. It is governed by an independent board composed
of citizens living in the previous service area of the Louise Obici
Memorial Hospital. This service area includes the cities of Suffolk
and Franklin and the County of Isle of Wight; Surry, Dendron and
Elberon in Surry County; Waverly and Wakefield in Sussex County;
Courtland, Boykins, Ivor, Sedley and Newsoms in Southampton County;
and Gates County, North Carolina.
By approaching the challenges of preventing illness and disease
and serving the uninsured from multiple angles, it is hoped that
the Foundation’s goals will be attained. A healthier community
will be an enduring legacy to one of Suffolk’s strongest community
leaders and its most renowned philanthropist.
