Bicentennial Honoree
The first hospital in Portage County opened in 1894 when Dr. White became concerned that accident victims had nowhere to go for medical care. Opened in a private home on Main Street, it was the “great grandfather” of the current Robinson Memorial Hospital. By 1903, demand exceeded the space available. Dr. White purchased property at the corner of Chestnut and Cedar where he built the new hospital. The two story brick building opened in October 1903, with 25 beds, a first floor kitchen and a second floor operating room. In 1917, Portage County passed a bond issue to purchase the hospital and a short time later it became the county hospital. Dr. White, in association with several other doctors, provided medical services for the community until 1931. Many families remember Dr. White for his kindly, faithful service, and his devotion to the welfare of his patients whether they could pay or not. A quote from Dr. William E. Lower sums up the man: “One of my very happy memories is the many years of pleasant association with Dr. White in the institution he loved so much and to which he devoted himself so ardently and earnestly. During the many years we were associated he never, by word or act, gave me one minute’s discomfort, nor did he ever do anything to lower the standard of the profession in which he was so devotedly engaged for so many years. Ravenna will never seem the same to me without him.”