Founders Ceremony

Members of the media are invited to attend a plaque dedication ceremony on July 26, 2013 at 2pm in the front courtyard when members of the Robert Bailey, MD family will dedicate a plaque in their father and mothers' honor at Arroyo Grande Community Hospital.

This ceremony will be held 52 years to the month after the original land was acquired and construction began. The hospital opened one year later in April 1962.

Dr. Bailey was one of the four original founders of AGCH Founders along with Elvin Wical, M.D., H.N. Cookson, MD and Kincy Scott, M.D. At the age of five, Dr. Bailey knew he wanted to be a physician and to build a hospital. His pursuit was propelled in 1960 when he moved from Missouri to California to begin a search for a community that needed a hospital.

Dr. Bailey’s son, Brian Bailey said, “My father came from extremely poor circumstances growing up on a farm in Missouri. One of the many things I respect about him is that, despite very modest beginnings, he developed a decades old dream and followed that dream." He added, “I respect him for having such a laudable goal and that he and my mother provided the community with such an important resource."

The plaque dedicated on July 26 will read “A Dream Fulfilled”, which is appropriate since Dr. and Ms. Bailey had long dreamed of finding a community that needed a hospital and building one. 

Dr. Bailey passed away in 2012. His wife Harlene passed away in 2010. They are survived by Brian, Bruce, Brent and Cristanne, all of whom live in California and who will also be present for the July 26 ceremony. 

About Arroyo Grande Community Hospital

Located in Arroyo Grande, California, Arroyo Grande Community Hospital is a comprehensive acute care hospital and is home to the Joint Replacement Center awarded distinctions by Blue Shield and is the exclusive provider of joint replacement care for CalPERS on the Central Coast.  The Emergency Department is one of the county’s busiest and nationally acclaimed for quality and patient satisfaction.  Arroyo provides the only comprehensive hospital-based Acute Rehabilitation Center on the Central Coast. AGCH is a Dignity Health member of the Central Coast, which also includes French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo, CA and Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria, CA. Each hospital is supported by an active philanthropic Foundation to support new programs and services on the Central Coast.  For more information www.arroyograndehospital.org, www.frenchmedicalcenter.org or www.marianmedicalcenter.org