Gloria Drummond was motivated to help found Boca Raton Regional
Hospital after two of her children were poisoned in 1962 and they died
en route to the hospital. Photo provided
For more on the Debbie-Rand League to support the Boca Raton Regional Hospital, click here.
By Emily J. Minor
Nearly 400 people came to Gloria Lawson Drummond’s funeral in mid-December to remember the amazing housewife who turned into a major health care activist after she lost two young children back in 1962 because the one local hospital was too far away to do her dying children any good.
Mrs. Drummond, the founder of Boca Raton Regional Hospital who went on to raise millions of dollars in her children’s names, died Dec. 10 after a lengthy illness. She was 81.
“Gloria Drummond’s passion to see something good come out of devastating personal tragedy is one of the most compelling stories in our community,” said Debbie Leising, president of the Debbie-Rand Memorial Service League, named after Drummond’s children, Debra and Randall.
“Not only was she the driving force behind the creation of our hospital, she also established and nurtured the development of one of the largest and most effective volunteer service and fundraising organizations in health care today.”
The Debbie-Rand league has raised nearly $30 million and contributed 2 million volunteer hours since Mrs. Drummond dried her tears in August of 1962 and set out to bring health care closer to those who need it.
As the story goes, Mrs. Drummond and her former husband moved from Michigan in 1959, a move she once said was predicated because the family dog had killed one too many cats back home. The couple were raising their children in Florida — dog, King, in tow — when two of their children became ghastly ill on April 12, 1962.
After Debra, 10, and (James) Randall, 3, drank milk that had been laced with poison by a neighborhood teenager, the couple raced the kids to the closest hospital, which was in Boynton Beach and 30 minutes away. But a big car accident snagged their travel time, and also complicated treatment once they arrived. The drive took an hour, she always said during her many public presentations, and her children’s care was delayed because of all the accident victims.
By the time the doctors saw her children, it was too late.
Mrs. Drummond always said she was briefly incapacitated by her grief, but quickly realized she had to do something to ward off any future tragedies. She and a handful of other local women started with a luncheon at her house. Their goal? To raise money and awareness for a new hospital.
Five years later, Boca’s first hospital opened with 104 beds — mostly due to the efforts of this burgeoning group of women. The Debbie-Rand league later picked up the fundraising efforts that, through the years, brought services and space to the hospital.
Mrs. Drummond, funny and diminutive, was constantly receiving community awards for her devotion to her cause.
Mrs. Drummond’s ex-husband, Robert, died in 1989, and four of her children preceded her in death: Debra and Randall in 1962; Robert in 1989; and Robyn in 2001. Two other children survive her, Douglas and Susan.
Before her death, Mrs. Drummond asked that any memorial donations be made to the Debbie-Rand Memorial Service League, 800 Meadows Road, Boca Raton, FL 33486.
Jerry Fedele, president and CEO of Boca Regional — which was named Boca Community when it first opened back in the ’60s — said Mrs. Drummond’s legacy lives on every day.
All you have to do, he says, is drive by the hospital “to see the dream, determination and dedication that was Gloria Drummond.”
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