Statue honors hospital patrons

J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital recently celebrated the philanthropists who made the facility possible by installing a statue of J.W. Ruby and Hazel Ruby McQuain outside, between the atrium and the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute tower.

J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital, the flagship hospital for WVU Medicine and the largest facility in the WVU Medicine family, is named for the late J.W. Ruby. Ruby’s late wife, Hazel Ruby McQuain, donated $8 million toward the construction of the hospital.

Ruby was a 21-year-old farm boy in 1924 when he went to work in the plating department of Sterling Specialty Company in Newcomerstown, Ohio. He came to Morgantown prior to World War II when Sterling Faucet purchased the idle mill complex in Morgantown. Ruby was put in charge of the plant.

Following the war, Ruby became the owner of Sterling Faucet. By the time he sold it in 1968, Ruby was involved in agriculture, mining, road paving, poultry processing, feed mills, and race horses. He owned several area businesses.

Ruby died in 1972 at the age of 69. McQuain died in 2002 at the age of 93.