This fund provides scholarships to residents of the area served by Copley Memorial Hospital in Aurora to further their post graduate education in medicine, health administration or dentistry.
The scholarship was established at the time of Orville Peterson’s retirement in 1976.
Mr. Peterson (1910-1984) was president of Copley Memorial Hospital from 1946 until 1976. During that time, the hospital undertook three major building projects.
Mr. Peterson also guided the remodeling of the Pediatric Department and the renovation of the 1888 building which later became the Kidney Dialysis Center.
He often recalled and was deeply touched by the extraordinary commitment of the hospital’s physical therapy staff during the polio epidemic. “The staff just never left during that time.”
Mr. Peterson passed away in 1984 in Long Beach, California.
In the 1990’s, Copley Memorial Hospital (renamed Rush-Copley Medical Center) moved from its original location on Lincoln Avenue in Aurora to Ogden Avenue in Aurora.
