WA L T E R W. F O N D R E N
and
THE
E A R LY D A Y S
of
THE METHODIST H O S P I TA L
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The Methodist Hospital Foundation
In the midst of the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918-19, Dr. Oscar Norsworthy of Houston offered his own 30-bed hospital to the Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Presiding church elder Robert W. Adams called together a committee of church and business leaders on December 9, 1919, to consider the offer. Walter W. Fondren was vice president of that committee. From that modest meeting, The Methodist Hospital and the Fondren family forged a relationship that continues through today. Walter was a self-made man who did well during the Texas oil industry boom. He and his wife Ella were devoted to their church and supported its programs. Over the years, Methodist became their favorite recipient of philanthropy. Several years later, Fondren was on the building committee when the hospital was completed in 1922, and he then continued on its board of directors. On more than one occasion, he made significant donations to Methodist – in some instances to keep the doors open, and in others to push it to greatness. Often, money was given so quietly that not even the family can truly say how much they have given over the past nine decades. Walter W. Fondren died of a heart attack in 1939 while attending a church meeting. However, Ella diligently continued her husband’s work when she was subsequently elected to the board of The Methodist Hospital. “After my husband was gone,” Ella recalled, “I had to take up some of the steps that he’d been traveling.”