Ray Pounds helped build Petaluma Valley Hospital decades ago. Now he’s helping to ensure its future.

“I’m ready to go. I’m done.”

When Denise Pounds made that declaration in December 2023, her husband Ray knew there was nothing left to say. After more than 20 years battling cancer and its side effects, she had returned one final time to Petaluma Valley Hospital — her “second home.”

Ray sat beside her in a hospital that had cared for their family for decades, where Denise had occupied nearly every bed at one point or another. All three sons made it in time. A couple of grandchildren too.

“They took good care of us over there,” Ray says simply.

Now Ray has made a substantial gift to expand the hospital’s orthopedic services, naming a room in Denise’s memory — ensuring the hospital will be there for generations to come.

The story of Ray and Denise Pounds is the story of Petaluma itself. Both were born in Petaluma when the town had one stoplight and 8,000 residents. They met at Petaluma High School at 16. Ray came home one day and told his mother: “I think I found the girl.”

In the 1980s, when the community was building Petaluma Valley Hospital, Ray’s CPA firm and partners stepped up with contributions — the beginning of a decades-long commitment.

For more than 20 years, Denise fought cancer and treatment side effects. Petaluma Valley Hospital became her second home. But Denise wasn’t just a patient — she was a fierce advocate.

When one of Ray’s coworkers was dying of cancer, Denise barely knew her but insisted on visiting. She sat beside the woman, offering comfort. When they brought See’s candy — the woman’s favorite — she was too nauseous to eat. “Just open the lid up and let me smell it,” she said. Denise held the box close.

“That’s the kind of person she was,” Ray remembers.

When hospital leadership approached Ray about the new orthopedic wing, he didn’t hesitate.

“We can’t wait,” he told them. “We’re trying to attract physicians. We have to show progress. We have to show them we are going to do what we say we’re going to do.”

Understanding that community hospitals need specialized services to survive, Ray wanted to ensure Petaluma Valley’s future. “A lot of people don’t think about the hospital until they need it,” he says. But he and Denise knew better.

Ray has served on the hospital Foundation board for years. “I’ve always felt that when you do well you should give back,” he says. His message to those who don’t isn’t critical — it’s concerned. “I don’t think they realize how satisfying it is. There’s such a return on your feeling that you’ve got some purpose.”

“You can’t take it with you,” Ray says. “It’s got to go somewhere.”

The room named for Denise honors not just her memory but her spirit — a woman who spoke up and cared about others. The gift ensures other families will have what Ray and Denise had: local care when they need it most. And it’s a testament to what Ray learned from Denise: when you see something that needs fixing, you don’t wait. You step up. You make it better.