history
Our History
The Lunenburg Health Service was organized in 1947 when Robert Miles Williams, a prominent Victoria businessman, announced his plans to donate funds for the establishment and maintenance of a public, non-profit health service facility. It was his dream that all Lunenburg County residents, regardless of their ability to pay, be eligible to receive proper supportive healthcare services when needed. He did not want the health needs of anyone – the rich, the poor, or the middle class – to “fall through the cracks.”
Williams’ dream grew out of a time of intense personal heartache and suffering. In 1940, at the height of his success, Williams was stricken with polio. He came close to death, was in an iron lung, and underwent extensive rehabilitation. For the rest of his life, he was unable to walk without crutches and leg braces and could not use his left arm. His wife, Blanche Robinson Williams, a well-known Virginia poet and the author of six books of verse, began to suffer from mental illness. Williams went from being healthy and in control to needing help for even the most basic tasks. He could no longer function without professional and personal help.
Dedication services were held in 1949 for the privately-endowed public health service housed in a new brick building on 6th Street in Victoria. It was given to the county under terms of a $200,000 foundation created by Williams. The project was cited as one of the first of its kind in the country that provided free supplemental healthcare to people unable to pay as well as to those who could pay. Not connected with the state and county health departments, the Lunenburg Health Service was to provide health services, care, and equipment beyond those available through tax-supported facilities.
Since that time, Williams’ dream has been achieved through a continuing and ambitious healthcare program. Coordinated through the county’s physicians, the Lunenburg Health Service continues to lend a helping hand to Lunenburg citizens when healthcare assistance is needed.
LUNENBURG DAY, MAY 20, 1949 — Article with pictures from the formal dedication of the Health Service. Governor William M. Tuck and Colgate W. Darden, Jr., President of the University of Virginia and former Governor of Virginia, were principal speakers at the dedication. Distinguished guests in the public health field also addressed the audience.
The establishment of this beautiful and useful health service was motivated by the challenge and philosophy of service taught by Christ, that you…that we…are truly our brother’s keeper. If that were not true, why would there have been a man to envision the Lunenburg Health Service? Why would these busy men with problems of their own with which to deal have taken the responsible job of being members of the board of directors, to plan and steer the health service? Why would your nurse, without concern for her individual comfort and safety, seek out the man, woman, and child in the remote corners of your county who is in need of her skill, knowledge, and understanding, if she had not been motivated by this philosophy?
Robert M. Williams (1894-1969), a well-known Victoria businessman, conceived the idea for a private, non-profit health service for Lunenburg citizens and established the trust fund which has supported it since 1947.
I have received many letters of appreciation from those who have made use of the service and have talked to many others. Everyone has only the highest praise for the most efficient and generous services rendered them. My heart has not ceased being touched every day watching the good service is doing. My greatest hope is that through the years to come, the health service may render even greater service and under our nurses and board of directors, I have no fear for the future of the Lunenburg Health Service, Inc.