The Mayo Clinic announced today that a longtime patient left the hospital nearly $43 million in estate funds in her will and trust. The Rochester, Minn. based hospital giant announced this news today in a press conference. Juanita Waugh, a well-known Indiana businesswoman who died last February, left a majority of her estate to the Mayo Clinic; the hospital in which her and her parents had been patients for nearly 60 years. Waugh passed one day before she was to celebrate her 88th birthday.

Mayo expressed that this is the third-largest gift it has ever received. The clinic says it will use the money to fund educational programs on its three campus in Rochester, Jacksonville, Fla. and Phoenix, Ariz. Additionally, the clinic said some of the money will help fund construction of an educational conference center in Arizona and advance the Mayo's online tool, MayoExpert. The largest portion will go towards scholarships in the Mayo Graduate School.

Mayo Clinic's CEO Dr. John Noseworthy expressed in a statement that the gift will help "keep today's medical professionals at the cusp of new knowledge for the future benefit of patients."

Waugh attended the University of Indiana and spent most of her life managing her families complex farming business. The gift was given in the memory of her parents, Lloyd Augustus Waugh and Laura Blanche Kious Waugh. Waugh's trust also gave St. Joseph's College of Renesslaer, Ind., about 7,600 acres of farm land, valued at more than $40 million.

Source: Star Tribune "Longtime Mayo patient leaves $43M to clinic" 08/12/2010