THOMASVILLE — John D. Archbold is a name associated with a Thomasville hospital that has served the area for almost nine decades.

To the world of commerce, industry and big business, Archbold’s name is well-recognized as a former president of Standard Oil of New Jersey.

John Dustin Archbold was born in Leesburg, Ohio, in 1848, the third son of the Rev. Israel Archbold, a Methodist Episcopal Church minister.

His son, John Foster Archbold, a New York City native and Yale graduate, gave John D. Archbold Memorial Hospital to Thomasville in memory of his father in 1925.

The Archbolds owned Chinquapin Plantation and were frequent visitors to the community.

In Archbold’s early years, officers of the corporation and the board of trustees were separate. In 1953, a merger of the two formed a single board structure.

According to the hospital’s history, the Archbold corporation remains a group of citizens interested in activities of the hospital and meets annually to elect members of the Archbold Medical Center board of trustees.

Judge H.W. Hopkins, first president of the Archbold corporation, is believed to be the only man to serve on the boards of all three local hospitals: Charity Hospital, City Hospital and Archbold Memorial.

He presided over the dedication ceremony of Archbold hospital in 1925, and its first meeting of the corporation in 1926.

Archbold opened as a modern, 100-bed general hospital. The majority of patients cared for at the time were from a wide range in South Georgia and North Florida.

James Bevans, M.D., Archbold’s first administrator, came out of retirement after a distinguished Army career and became affiliated with Archbold in 1924, prior to completion of the new hospital, and served until 1930.

Following the hospital dedication program on June 30, 1925, guests enjoyed an open house coordinated by the Women’s Board, a predecessor to today’s Hospital Auxiliary. Women’s groups from local churches and civic organizations affiliated with the Women’s Board to support the hospital’s work.

In 1929 and 1930, Women’s Board volunteers visited former charity patients at home after they left the hospital, leading eventually led to hiring of a full-time social worker.

In 1952, the Women’s Board was reorganized as the Women’s Hospital Auxiliary, and one of the early projects was the establishment of a hospital canteen.

The first Candy Stripers, or teen volunteers, were formed in 1960. Working volunteers began to be known as Pink Ladies and helped in many different areas of the hospital. Red Cross volunteers, also known as Gray Ladies, were another important support to the hospital and its patients.

Between the 1950s and 1970s, Archbold become the region’s largest network of services. Archbold Health Services began offering home health care in 1973. Seen as indicative of a future trend, home health services provided skilled nursing care and a variety of therapies to patients in their own homes.

In December 1958, the Y-shaped three-story West Wing opened, adding 56 beds, improvements to surgery, delivery rooms and the nursery, and an expansion of the X-ray department. A cafeteria and pharmacy also were added. Archbold gained a fourth and fifth floor to the West Wing in 1976.

In 1986, Archbold purchased a magnetic resonance imaging unit (MRI), the first of its kind in Georgia south of Atlanta and in North Florida.

During a decade of development, the addition of the second and third floors to the Clinic Building were completed in 1970, adding 75 beds to increase inpatient capacity to 185. The region’s first Mental Health Center also opened in 1970. Fourth and fifth floors were added to the West Wing in 1976.

During the 1980s and 1990s, a regional network emerged, and Pat Fenlon became Archbold’s administrator in 1960, and after a corporate reorganization in 1985, became Archbold Medical Center president and served until he announced his retirement in 1992.

One of the most significant events in 1987, was the designation of Archbold Memorial Hospital as a regional trauma center by Southwest Georgia Emergency Medical Services Council and the Georgia Department of Human Resources Health Section.

In 1988, the Lewis Hall Singletary Oncology Center became the region’s first comprehensive cancer facility. Located adjacent to the Archbold Memorial Hospital campus, the 16,500-square-foot facility became home to the latest diagnostic and treatment equipment and offered a unique comprehensive approach to cancer care.

Archbold’s Outpatient Surgery Center opened in May 1989, as a free-standing addition to the West Wing and in conjunction with the complete renovation of the hospital’s inpatient surgical department.

Aided by a generous contribution from the Adrian and Jesse Archbold Charitable Trust, the Archbold Ambulatory Care Center opened in 2002, with 40,000 square feet of convenient and comfortable space for outpatient services. The Center provides access to pre-admission testing and outpatient laboratory testing, and Ambulatory Surgery Center and Imaging Center and for the first time in this area, a dedicated Women’s Center.

With completion of the East Tower project in February 2006, an additional 90,000 square feet of patient care support space was added to the main facility at Archbold.

In August 2010, the new Lewis Hall Singletary Oncology Center opened for patient care in its new location on South Broad Street.

In May 2012, Archbold’s North Tower — the largest single construction project in the history of Thomasville and Archbold’s largest investment in patient care and safety in 86 years — opened to the community.

The North Tower is a modern replacement for key hospital services, including a new Emergency Department, a new surgery department with six major operating rooms around a clean core, a new Intensive Care Unit and three patient floors with 32 private patient rooms per floor.

Archbold has more than 200 physicians on staff representing more than 30 medical specialties with a broad range of medical and surgical expertise.

Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820.