KITCHENER -- The flags at St. Mary’s General Hospital are flying at half mast to honour the past chair of the hospital’s board of trustees.
In a news release, the hospital announced that Tom Motz died on Friday at the age of 57.
“Tom lived and breathed St. Mary’s and gave his heart and soul to our hospital,” Scott Smith, Chair of the St. Mary’s board of trustees, said in the news release.
“He was a true gentleman, collaborator and visionary, who strengthened St. Mary’s and the many community organizations he supported with an optimistic spirit, knack for consensus-building and commitment to innovation and quality improvement.”
Motz spent more than 20 years serving on the hospital’s board and committees, along with the board of the St. Mary’s General Hospital Foundation.
His obituary says he died in “his second home, St. Mary’s General Hospital” after an aortic dissection earlier last week.
The obituary also encourages people to learn CPR, donate blood and sign up as organ donors.
“Tom will live on in his last act of kindness as an organ donor,” the obituary says.
Motz started working with the hospital in 1997 and joined the board of trustees a decade later, where he helped create the Regional Cardiac Care Centre.
“Tom’s place in St. Mary’s history and his long service are remarkable,” St. Mary’s President Lee Fairclough said in a statement. “He is the fourth generation of the Motz family to guide and shape St. Mary’s in a volunteer advisor role, upholding the hospital’s mission of compassionate care with dignity and respect. He carried on the Motz family legacy as a leadership donor and served on the St. Mary’s General Hospital Foundation Board over the years.”
Motz was involved in the newspaper publishing and precision manufacturing industries and, outside of his work with the hospital, volunteered with a number of other groups in Waterloo Region.
His family will hold a private memorial service. The hospital says there are plans to hold a memorial for Motz once COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.
