Cymbaluk family donates $5 million for hospital expansion

EVERETT — The medical tower opening this summer at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett will be named in honor of Marshall and Katherine Cymbaluk, the longtime owners of

an Everett truck dealership who are making a $5 million donation to the project, hospital officials said Jan. 24.

“It’s easiest the largest gift our foundation has ever received in its history,” said Dave Brooks, the hospital’s chief executive.

The hospital’s new 12-story, $460 million building is scheduled to open June 14.

“We’ve been in the community for about 40 years and established a successful business and spread it around to other locations in Western Washington and Alaska,” Marshall Cymbaluk said. “We felt we wanted to give something back to the community that served us well.”

Both Katherine and Marshall Cymbaluk have long ties with the hospital.

Katherine Cymbaluk worked as a registered nurse in the orthopedics and mother-baby units at the former Everett General Hospital, which merged with Providence in 1994.

Marshall Cymbaluk was one of the early members of the Providence Hospital Foundation, which was launched in the late 1970s and is now known as the Providence General Foundation.

Marshall Cymbaluk said that he first established his business, Motor Trucks Inc., in downtown Everett in 1974, purchasing it from a previous owner.

Last year, the business moved to Riverside Business Park, part of the former Weyerhaeuser Co. lumber mill site.

It is a franchise dealership for International Trucks, providing parts, sales and services for heavy-duty trucks. Its other dealerships are in Mount Vernon and Bellingham.

The family also owns Kenworth Northwest, with shops in SeaTac, Aberdeen, Bellingham, Marysville, Yakima and Fairbanks and Anchorage, Alaska.

Cymbaluk runs the businesses with his son, Jeff Cymbaluk, who is general manager.

Collectively, the businesses employ 260 people, Marshall Cymbaluk said.

The Cymbaluks have been involved in a number of other charitable causes in the community over the years, including Everett’s Imagine Children’s Museum and St. Mary Magdalen, with donations both to the school’s recreational building and to the parish.

Brooks said he took the Cymbaluks on a tour of the new medical tower in March. He said he thought the couple were interested in making a donation to the project, but wasn’t sure how much it might be.

Marshall Cymbaluk, 71, said that he was struck by the size of the new emergency department. Its 55,870 square feet of space is equivalent in size to three National Hockey League ice rinks. With 79 treatment areas, it will have the capacity to treat up to 150,000 patients a year.

“It’s humongous,” he said. “It will take care of an awful lot of patients who walk through the doors in this community.”

The donation is not being earmarked for any particular purchases in the new building, but will help pay for general construction and equipment costs, said Randy Petty, chief development officer for Providence General Foundation.

An estimated $60 million is being spent on equipment, Brooks said. “A project of this size … has to rely on the community to support it,” not just the money it receives for providing health care services, Brooks said.

So far, about $15 million has been raised for the new medical tower, including $3.9 million from medical groups and health care workers and another $1 million from hospital employees, Petty said.

Former Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel, who has been working with other volunteers on fundraising for the medical tower, said the Cymbaluks first disclosed their donation at their Everett business offices Jan. 13.

Drewel said over the past six months he has learned about how Marshall Cymbaluk grew up on the plains of Alberta and went on to develop an entrepreneurial spirit that has provided jobs for people in Snohomish County and across Washington.

The couple’s contribution comes during tough economic times, when many people might say they would like to make a contribution to charitable causes but want to wait for better times, Drewel said.

“These two folks said now is the time … the community needs it …. and we’re going to give it,” Drewel said. “In a word, it’s stunning.”

Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com