By Gillian Graham

Staff Writer

Former President George H.W. Bush spoke at the dedication of Southern Maine Medical Center’s Dorothy Walker Bush Pavilion, which is named in honor of his mother.

Prior to a dedication ceremony, Bush and family members took a private tour of the new emergency care pavilion in Biddeford. Bush is honorary chairman of the Lifepromise Capital Campaign, which was launched in 2005 to construct the new emergency department. The campaign raised $8.6 million from 875 individuals, local businesses and foundations. 

The Dorothy Walker Bush Pavilion is the cornerstone of a $26 million expansion project that doubled the size of the emergency department, according to a hospital press release. The hospital is the eighth largest in the state and has the fifth busiest emergency department. 

The pavilion includes 29 treatment rooms, up from 17 in the previous emergency department. There is also a new main lobby and admitting area, education center, medical library, chapel, healing garden and welcome center. Additionally, the department has a separate area for patients experiencing acute mental health crises, according to information provided by the hospital.

Dorothy Walker Bush was a friend and benefactor of SMMC. Born in a cottage off Ocean Avenue in Kennebunkport in 1901 to George Herbert and Lucretia Walker of St. Louis, she spent many summers in Maine. Her father purchased the Kennebunkport land now known as Walker’s Point in 1902. 

In a commemorative video, family members remembered Dorothy Walker Bush as a kind, elegant, down-to-earth woman who was competitive in tennis and loved sailing.

“I knew her best in Kennebunkport in the summers where we would spend a lot of time together. My grandmother was sweet and kind and very loving. I can safely say that she was one of the kindest women of her generation,” Dorothy Bush Koch said in the video. “If I could be one tenth of what she was like I would be happy. It is an honor for me to be named after her.”