Swiss-born Willy Buhlmann gives Brattleboro Memorial Hospital $4 million

Willy Buhlmann, who emigrated from Switzerland in 1970, is giving $4 million to Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, VTDigger reported on 19 October.

He founded a machine shop, Swiss Precision Turning, in Brattleboro in 1990, according to WCAX. In 2023 he sold it to Geokon, an engineering company from New Hampshire.

The hospital is short of money. It runs on about $130 million a year and expects a $7.1 million deficit this year, according to a state filing. It lost $33.6 million between 2017 and 2025. Its reserves of cash and investments were $53.3 million in 2021 and are expected to be $19.7 million next year. His gift goes into that investment account.

“I’m glad I made Brattleboro my home, and I wanted to give something back,” Buhlmann said in a statement. “The hospital is important to this community, and I wanted to do something meaningful to help ensure that people can continue to receive care.”

“I wanted to make this donation while I’m still alive and can see its impact,” he said.

David Sanville, the hospital’s interim chief executive, called it “an extraordinary investment” in the hospital and in health care in the region.

In 2014 Ronald Read, a former gas station attendant and janitor, died at 92 and left the hospital $4.8 million. The hospital’s Ronald Read Pavilion carries his name.