A new multi-million El Camino Health nursing endowment from the family Jack and Norma Melchor honors the former matriarch of the Mountain View hospital.
The Norma Melchor Nursing Excellence Endowment will support onsite nurse training, specialization certifications, scholarships for advanced degree programs, fellowships, conference attendance and other initiatives that advance nurse education and training including staff retention, leadership and research.
Cheryl Reinking, chief nursing officer, called the endowment a “truly historic” investment in nursing professional development.
“This matters because this is truly going to allow us to transform nursing at El Camino,” she said. “It positions us to meet current workforce needs while planning for the next generation.”
The announcement was made Nov. 4 at El Camino Health in Mountain View to a room full of nurses, hospital administrators and health professionals. Among the guests was Kay Melchor, daughter of Jack and Norma.
“I think it would make my mom happy. She was dedicated to the hospital and dedicated to nursing,” she said. “She cared about the nurses because she was one.”
Reinking wore Norma Melchor’s original nursing uniform she used in the nascent days of El Camino Health. Reinking said after knowing Norma Melchor, she knew the endowment would be another fitting accomplishment of her legacy.
“Norma was truly a supporter of El Camino Health and continues to be today,” she said. “This is a permanent endowment – this will outlive all of us.”
Norma Melchor began her career as a World War II surgical nurse and volunteered for the El Camino Hospital Auxiliary in 1957. She served on the hospital’s board of directors for four, four-year terms in the 1970s and 1980s.
She died in 2012 at the age of 87.
Jack Melchor was a founder of HP Associates, a venture capitalist and founder of the El Camino Hospital Foundation in 1982 with a $1 million contribution.
Jack Melchor died in 2015 at the age of 90.
The Melchors were named Los Altans of the Year in 2007. At the time, Jon Friedenberg, then the president of the hospital’s foundation and the vice president of the hospital referred to the couple as “Mr. and Mrs. El Camino.”
The hospital features the Melchor Pavilion, a cancer and neuroscience care center. The Melchors dedicated the land where the 66,000-square-foot building stands.
“Never have they lost the fact that healthcare should be for every individual,” Norma Melchor told the Town Crier about El Camino Health in 2007.
