NorthBay Healthcare Foundation learned late last year that long-time Fairfield resident Bessie Day had willed a gift of $200,000 to NorthBay Healthcare. Bessie Day loved her job serving the residents of Fairfield first as secretary to then-City Manager B. Gale Wilson, and then as Fairfield’s City Clerk until her retirement in 1999. In those roles, she worked closely with many NorthBay Healthcare board members, including G. Ben Huber and Gary Falati, as the organization grew from Intercommunity Hospital to NorthBay Medical Center. Her career spanned 33 years, and earned her not only the honor of having the most years of service to the city of Fairfield at that time, but to have a street in the Gold Ridge subdivision named after her.

Mrs. Day passed away in June 2017, but her estate set aside $200,000 for NorthBay Healthcare to be used to support areas of greatest need, according to Brett Johnson, NorthBay Healthcare Foundation president. “Bessie’s wishes will be fulfilled in perpetuity,” Johnson noted, “because our Foundation board has established a permanent fund—named ‘The Bessie and Robert Day Endowment’—and earmarked the earnings on the fund to be spent at NorthBay Healthcare according to her request.

“Bessie loved Fairfield and wanted to ensure that she could continue to contribute to the community where she worked and lived,” Johnson added. “Her generous contribution is a legacy that will help NorthBay Healthcare to fulfill its mission of service to our community.”