CHOC Receives Largest Gift In Its History
$30 million gift accelerates transformational change

Sometimes there’s a compelling and profound sense of humility in the quiet advocate for children. CHOC Children’s came to understand this when it received a $30 million estate gift— the largest gift in the hospital’s history—from a private, compassionate philanthropist whose ideals matched CHOC’s mission to improve the lives of children locally, nationally, and globally for generations to come.

The gentleman was former investment banker Robert L. Tidwell, who lived modestly in Garden Grove, California, and gave extraordinarily to drive the growth of a children’s hospital. With his transformative gift, CHOC is now more than 80 percent of the way toward meeting the goal of its $125 million “Change CHOC, Change the World” campaign, a major fundraising effort that will help CHOC evolve from a regional pediatric care center into one of the nation's leading children’s hospitals.

Mr. Tidwell’s gift will be balanced between helping build the new tower and future program growth and development: $15 million will support CHOC’s master campus plan, and the remaining $15 million will be set aside to support the advancement of pediatric medicine through clinical program development.

CHOC will name the surgery center in the new patient care tower in Mr. Tidwell’s honor. “Mr. Tidwell will forever be remembered at CHOC Children’s for his deep desire to help children. His generous support for this invaluable local asset will help make Orange County one of the safest communities for children in the nation,” says Sandy Segerstrom Daniels, honorary chair of the “Change CHOC, Change the World” campaign.

Mr. Tidwell, who was born in Amarillo, Texas, and raised in Southern California, first made contact with CHOC in 2004 when he called to donate a computer. Tidwell was impressed with how easy CHOC made the process for him. The avid fisherman, diver, and traveler said he found confidence in the idea that if an organization could pick up his computer and treat him correctly, then they could also use his estate correctly. Further correspondences led to a tour of the hospital, during which Mr. Tidwell became visibly moved several times, especially when he recalled his own childhood illness that had landed him in a local hospital. At some point after the tour, Mr. Tidwell said he wanted his money to help children, and he decided to leave his entire estate to CHOC.

“CHOC made a strong connection with Mr. Tidwell, and their treatment of children resonated with him,” says Doug Corbin, the senior gift-planning advisor at CHOC.

The message here, Corbin says, is there is no one type of person that makes a gift of this size. When a donor’s values match those of the organization, the donor expresses it in a way that is meaningful and personal to them. This gift helps to provide the resources CHOC needs to fulfill its mission far into the future.”