In April 1977, the Ashland City Council approved formation of the Ashland Community Hospital Foundation. The Foundation’s first Board of Directors was comprised of members of the Hospital’s Endowment Committee. This group made the decision to incorporate as a private, independent foundation, which would provide greater latitude in pursuing donations to the Hospital. As noted in an article in the Ashland Daily Tidings, the City and its agencies, including the Hospital, “are prohibited from holding, for example, stocks and receiving proceeds from them, but the Foundation can do so.”

In May 1977, the Foundation was formed as a 501(C)(3) non-profit corporation. The original signers of the Articles of Incorporation were Thomas Howser, Edwin Singmaster, Albert Schwab and Donald Lewis. Two women—Evelyn Kreisman and Maggie Skerry—were instrumental in the formation of the Foundation’s first Board of Directors.

Minutes of the August 9, 1977 meeting show $554.55 in the treasury. Hospital Administrator Robert Strowbridge prepared a “need list” and presented it to the Foundation. At the end of the year, the Hospital’s Endowment Committee announced that funds in its account would be transferred to the Foundation.

From 1977 until 1989, the Foundation raised and disbursed to the Hospital an average of $25,000 per year. Early projects included establishing a heart fund, a pulmonary function/inhalation department and an X-ray fund.

In 1989, the Foundation established its own endowment fund, which now has a corpus of more than $500,000. Jean Bernard, who served as President of the Foundation Board of Directors in 1989, began the endowment fund. Today, the Foundation has assets of more than $7,000,000.