Norwalk Hospital Receives $10 Million Gift from McGraws

Saying funds will create new emergency and outpatient care facilities, officials on Friday announced that the children of longtime Darien donors are giving them $10 million.    

The money is being donated by the children of Anne P. and Harold W. McGraw, Jr., according to a press release issued by the hospital.

“Our parents had a lifelong commitment to helping others,” daughter Sue McGraw said in the release.

McGraw, former chairman, president and CEO of McGraw-Hill, the family publishing business, died in 2010, eight years after his wife, the former Anne Per-Lee, according to the press release.

The $10 million will go to establish The Anne P. and Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Center for outpatient care, hospital officials said.

“The new Ambulatory Pavilion will include a new Cancer Center, an expanded Emergency Department, a state-of-the-art Center for Digestive Diseases, and updated facilities for Ambulatory Surgery,” according to the press release, issued by hospital Communications Manager Carol Brennan-Smith.

The project encompasses 90,000 square feet of new construction, according to the release. Officials say they expect to break ground this fall for completion in three years.

Dan DeBarba, Norwalk Hospital president and CEO, said this in the press release: “The McGraws’ incredibly generous gift, the largest Norwalk Hospital has ever received, and among the largest gifts to a Connecticut Hospital, will truly transform our ability to deliver the most compassionate, advanced medical care to our community.”

Here are the hospital’s biographies of the McGraws, copied from the release:

• Born in 1918 in New York City, Harold McGraw, Jr. graduated from Princeton University in 1940, served as a captain in the Army Air Corps in World War II, and then worked in the advertising agency and book retailing fields before joining McGraw-Hill (founded in 1888 by his grandfather James H. McGraw) as a sales representative in its Book Company in 1947. He held many publishing responsibilities in his 50-plus years with the firm, becoming President of the McGraw-Hill Book Company in 1968, and then President of the parent corporation, McGraw-Hill, Inc., its Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the Board. He retired in 1988 at 70 after being elected Chairman Emeritus.
• McGraw, Jr. married Anne Per-Lee, who volunteered for many years at Norwalk Hospital. Mrs. McGraw passed away in 2002. Mr. McGraw passed away in 2010. With a passion for education, the McGraws focused their philanthropy on areas close to their heart - higher education, literacy programs and public libraries. They cared deeply for those less fortunate.

More information is available on the hospital’s website.