Bill and Judy Stanford Make Bequest and Cash Gifts in Thanks for Great Care

It was shortly after moving to Sarasota in 1996 that William “Bill” Stanford became closely involved with the Sarasota Memorial Health Care System—both as a member of the Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation board and as a patient. Now he and his wife Judy are significant donors to the Healthcare Foundation through cash gifts and a bequest in their wills.

“We had vacationed in Sarasota quite a bit and knew we wanted to move down here,” explains Bill, who in 1996 retired as vice president and controller of Eli Lilly in Indianapolis. “We were avid tennis players, but we hadn’t been here long when I blew out my knee and had surgery at Sarasota Memorial.”

Bill was already on the Healthcare Foundation board, having been recommended for the post by his next-door neighbor—who thought Bill’s financial and pharmaceutical experience would be helpful in fundraising. Bill has been on the board or a board committee ever since, serving as president three times. He has also had “10 or 11” surgeries at the hospital, mostly for sports injuries. Judy has been a patient as well.

The Stanfords both went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the community where Judy grew up. Bill earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and an MBA, while Judy majored in education. They married in 1965, while still in school. Bill spent four years in the Navy and then worked around the world for Eli Lilly—including in Germany, Austria, and Brazil. Judy taught at American international schools in all those locations and also raised their two sons. Returning to the States, the Stanfords settled in Indianapolis where Eli Lilly is based.

The couple recently decided to make a significant gift to support the $220 million Sarasota Memorial cancer institute that was approved last year. The Stanfords also believe in making legacy gifts such as the one in their estate plan.

“I have stayed on the Foundation board so long because I really believe in the ways the Foundation is supporting the hospital,” Bill says. “The Foundation people are very professional, and of course it is for a good cause. This is an absolutely outstanding hospital. The doctors and nursing staff are fantastic.”

Bill in particular wanted to thank three of his doctors: urologist Robert Carey, orthopedist Brian Schofield, and cardiologist Ricardo Yaryura.

“I have been in the hospital twice, for cancer and a stroke,” Judy says. “They were wonderful, just wonderful to me. We are big supporters of this hospital.”