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El Camino Health Foundation Receives Gift to Endow Hope to Health Women’s Giving Circle

Dave Rodgers has made a gift to create the Linda Rice Rodgers Hope to Health Endowment in loving memory of his wife Linda, who served three terms on the Foundation Board of Directors and was a founding member of Hope to Health (H2H).

Linda and Dave were married for 53 years before she succumbed to ovarian cancer in July 2024. The endowment will contribute Linda’s H2H dues in perpetuity and underwrite an educational program on cancer, particularly cancer that impacts women, for members and prospective members once a year.

Linda and Dave met at Carnegie-Mellon University. “We had dated other people, but it was clear she was the one,” he remembers. She majored in physics and history with a minor in math. He studied electrical engineering and computer science. Told by her professors that there were no jobs for women in physics, she became an employment lawyer to “represent those whose talent was wasted for silly reasons.” Dave’s career took them from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts, Oregon, Texas, and California. Linda passed the bar in all five states and devoted her professional life to fighting for people. In Oregon, for example, she won cases limiting nuclear waste disposal, blocking religious takeover of municipal government, and fair resolution of gender discrimination in employment. She also generously shared her legal expertise in her volunteer work. At El Camino Health Foundation, she wrote the policies and procedures that allowed Hope to Health members to decide which hospital program to support with their pooled philanthropy, the first committee of the Foundation to do so, and she guided an update of the Foundation’s bylaws. Linda began experiencing ovarian cancer symptoms in early 2020 but her gynecologist dismissed them. Thanks to an educational Hope to Health program about the silent killer, Linda listened to her body and sought a second opinion in the fall, which confirmed her suspicion. “When she started getting care at El Camino Health, that’s when things really turned around,” Dave recalls. “She would have passed away a lot sooner without it.” Linda credited the H2H program for saving her life. “The value of H2H,” she said in April 2024, “is the health education it provides for women at all stages of life, the mutual support that members give each other, the opportunity to serve the greater community, and the philanthropy we direct to improve the health of women and families through programs at El Camino Health.”

“Linda’s interest in H2H and her actions as a lawyer were all about helping others. Her message regarding healthcare is educate yourself so you can be your own advocate. We had a wonderful life together outside of our careers and were proud of one another’s professional accomplishments. I miss her intensely,” Dave shares. His loving tribute gift will perpetuate her life’s work and contribute to the advancement of healthcare for women and families at El Camino Health for generations to come.