Couple Donate $7 Million for Burbank Cancer Center

A North Hollywood businessman and his wife donated $7 million Tuesday toward construction of a $70-million cancer-care center that would be the centerpiece of St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, hospital officials said.

The donation by Jack Robertson, 50, owner of Robertson Honda, and his wife Diane, 51, was announced during a reception at the hospital.

The center will feature state-of-the-art facilities for cancer detection, treatment, education and research, hospital officials said. Hospice and family counseling facilities will be included in the expansion, scheduled to be completed in 1992.

Also planned are new intensive-care and mental-health units, a laboratory for diagnosis of vascular diseases and expanded facilities for diagnosis through radiology and nuclear medicine.

“We’re going to have something unique here,” said Richard Horowitz, the hospital’s director of pathology. “We will be combining the best in technology and research with the compassion of the Sisters of Providence.” The Sisters of Providence is a nonprofit health-care organization that founded the Burbank hospital in 1944.

Robertson, who lives in Big Bear with his wife, said the contribution was made in honor of their deceased parents.

“I really wanted to do something in memory of them because, without them, we would not be where we are today,” Robertson said.

Diane Robertson, who said both her parents died of cancer, said she felt that the family should share its good fortune.

“We feel it’s important to make that contribution,” she said. “We all need help, and we all need to make that difference when we can.”

The building that will house the cancer center will be named Robertson Tower, Horowitz said.

With the Robertsons’ contribution, the hospital foundation has raised $12 million of its contribution goal of $15 million for the cancer center.

Tax-exempt bonds and hospital operating fees will generate the balance of the $70 million, Horowitz said.

The 649-bed hospital is the largest health-care facility in the San Fernando Valley and the largest Catholic hospital in the state, officials said. More than 1 million patients are treated at the hospital each year, they said.