University Hospital (1960 – 1988)

In 1960, the original hospital (or, what is now the south wing of the university's Health Sciences Center), financed by West Virginia's penny-a-bottle excise tax on soda,^[6] first opened as University Hospital.^[7]

Although the hospital was constructed to last a lifetime, the building was plagued by several events that would leave it in a state of disrepair, including a fire in 1967 and a ventilation system breakdown in 1981, which left a significant majority of the hospital covered in soot, including ten of the hospital's 11 operating rooms, and required the transfer of all the hospital's patients to surrounding facilities for approximately three weeks.^[8]

Ruby Memorial Hospital (1988 – 2016)

As a result of University Hospital's many safety concerns, which would cost an estimated $60 million to repair, West Virginia University president Gordon Gee developed a plan to reorganize the hospital, then owned by the state and funded in large part by its revenue, under a new non-profit corporate structure controlled by the University, which would allow the hospital to borrow debt as a source of financing.^[8]

Initially an unpopular idea, the plan had the support of then-Governor John Rockefeller IV and was backed by the West Virginia Legislature, as a means to construct a new state-of-the-art hospital without requiring financing by the state, all while avoiding costly repairs to the twenty-plus-year-old original structure.^[8]

By mid-1984, the Legislature had finalized the hospital's transfer into the new West Virginia University Hospitals corporation.^[8][9]

Also in 1984, the Hazel Ruby McQuain made an $8 million contribution toward the construction of the new hospital, in honor of her late husband, John Wesley Ruby. At that time the largest donation in West Virginia history, Ruby McQuain's gift would see her late husband become the namesake of the new hospital, Ruby Memorial Hospital.^[4][5]

Ruby Memorial Hospital officially opened in 1988, along with the WVU Children's Hospital; Jon Michael Moore Trauma Center; and Chestnut Ridge Hospital, a psychiatric and chemical-dependency hospital.^[7]

J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital (2016 – present)

In 2016, the hospital once again received a new name, this time as J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital, a move which sought to honor the life of the hospital's namesake, John Wesley ("J.W.") Ruby, as well as the significance of the Hazel Ruby McQuain's 1984 donation in honor of him.

In adding the "J.W." to the hospital's name, Albert Wright Jr., the hospital's president and CEO, said, "we want people everywhere to remember the significant contributions that John Wesley Ruby made to West Virginia, and that the Ruby family was the catalyst that helped begin the transformation of the hospital into a nationally recognized academic medical center."^[10]