Portrait of benefactor and his family honors the Charlton family's decades-long support to Southcoast Hospitals

For Immediate Release	Contact: Patricia Giramma
June 6, 2007	508-961-5272
	girammap@southcoast.org
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FALL RIVER, Mass. — Southcoast Hospitals Group today unveiled a portrait of the family of Earle P. "Chuck" Charlton II, at Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River. The portrait includes Charlton, his wife, Fran, and daughter, Stacey.

Earle P. "Chuck" Charlton II, right, and daughter, Stacey, unveil the Charlton family portrait June 6 in the lobby of Charlton Memorial Hospital. The portrait also pictures Charlton's wife, Fran.

"Chuck and his family have continued and expanded the legacy of giving that began with his grandfather, Earle Perry Charlton, more than eight decades ago," said John B. Day, President & CEO of Southcoast Health System. "We thought it was only fitting to honor that legacy with a portrait of this latest generation of the Charlton family."

Charlton is trustee of the Charlton Charitable Trusts that were established by his grandfather, who was founder of E.P. Charlton Five & Ten Cent Company, which later became F.W. Woolworth.

"The ongoing support of the Charlton Charitable Trust has helped Southcoast bring the best possible services and technology to the region," said Ronald B. Goodspeed, MD, MPH, President of Southcoast Hospitals Group. "Their generosity has helped ensure that our neighbors, family and friends will get the care that they need, right here close to home."

A Legacy of Giving

The Charlton legacy of giving, whose health interests previously focused on Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River, broadened in 2006 with a $2 million gift to St. Luke's Hospital, Southcoast's New Bedford site, to help fund the recently completed $33 million expansion and renovation project. The gift was the largest ever received by St. Luke's.

"We chose to make that pledge to St. Luke's because, as part of Southcoast Health System, the hospital provides essential services to the area," Charlton said when announcing the gift last November. "It was in keeping with the intent of the Charlton Charitable Trust, which is to help ensure the people of southeastern Massachusetts have what they need."

A Family Portrait

Earle P. "Chuck" Charlton II, his wife, Fran, and daughter, Stacey, are pictured in a new portrait by artist Robert A. Anderson, that was unveiled June 6 in the lobby of Charlton Memorial Hospital.

The portrait of Charlton and his family was painted by Robert A. Anderson, of Darien, Conn., a renowned portrait artist whose commissioned works are in more than 100 public, private and institutional collections throughout the U.S. and the world.

In addition to painting privately commissioned portraits since 1973, Anderson was illustrator for the John H. Breck Company for 15 years. His pastel portraits appeared in Breck Shampoo print advertising and in commercials on American and Canadian network television.

Between 1984 and 1989 Anderson was under contract with the United States Postal Service to execute portraits for a number of U.S. postage stamps in the Great Americans Series. In 2002 President George W. Bush selected Anderson to paint his portrait for the Yale Club of New York City.

The Charlton portrait will hang in the Charlton Memorial Hospital lobby alongside those of Earle Perry Charlton, Charles M. Moran and Philomen E. Truesdale, MD.

Charles M. Moran was the President of Union Hospital from 1960 to 1974. Under his board leadership, the Union Hospital expanded and modernized its facilities and services.

Philomen E. Trusdale, MD, established a private surgical center in the early 1900s and founded Truesdale Hospital in 1915. One of his earliest patients at the surgical center was a youngster by the name of Perry Charlton, who was rushed to the hospital with a ruptured appendix and peritonitis — a complication that was often fatal at the time. The child was the son of Earle Perry Charlton.

Charlton Family's History of Helping

Concerned with improving health care in the area and grateful for the care his son received, the elder Charlton began a legacy of support for Charlton Memorial Hospital and its predecessors that continues to this day.

One of Charlton's first gifts was $25,000 in 1923 for a new wing to Truesdale Hospital and four years later an unprecedented $500,000 to fund the entire Charlton surgery wing. Truesdale Hospital became Union-Truesdale in 1975 and was renamed Charlton Memorial Hospital in 1980 with a $1 million contribution by the Charlton trust to the Union-Truesdale building fund. The family trust has continued their support throughout the years, most recently with the $2 million pledge to St. Luke's.

About Southcoast

Southcoast Health System, a not-for-profit charitable organization, is a community based health delivery system with multiple access points, offering an integrated continuum of advanced health services throughout Southeastern Massachusetts and East Bay, Rhode Island. It includes Southcoast Hospitals Group, formed in 1996 from the merger of Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River, St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford and Tobey Hospital in Wareham.

Southcoast has more than 40 ancillary facilities, including the Southcoast Health Van, home health care, hospice and infusion services, numerous outpatient medical services, an assisted living facility and a wellness center. For more information visit www.southcoast.org.

Southcoast is one of three community hospitals approved by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to perform open heart surgery and primary angioplasty beginning in Spring 2002.

Media Contact

Patricia Giramma
Phone: 508-961-5272
Pager: 978-859-6077
Fax: 508-961-5876
girammap@southcoast.org