Ringhaver family donates $75 million to Mayo Clinic expansion

On yesterday, CEO Kent Thielen reported to Historic City News that Paula and Randy Ringhaver, chairman and CEO of Ring Power, gifted $75 million to Mayo Clinic in Florida.  In making this major philanthropic investment in the future of Northeast Florida’s healthcare economy, the prominent St. Johns County business owners have reinforced Mayo’s role as a cornerstone in the First Coast’s medical sector, Thielen said.

The family who generously stepped up and intervened when the City of St Augustine was considering the destruction of the 1879 memorial honoring those local soldiers who lost their lives on the battlefields during the American Civil War, said that they were inspired by the memory of their late-son, Randal “Lee” Ringhaver, Jr., who passed in 1980 at the age of 8 1/2-months old from an aggressive form of leukemia.  The family has also chosen to name Mayo’s newly expanded tower in his honor.

“When we walk into the tower, we feel optimism and confidence,” said Paula Ringhaver in a statement. “It symbolizes growth and progress. We believe in what Mayo Clinic is building here, and we trust that Lee’s legacy will live on through the care and hope this tower represents.”

The Lee Ringhaver Tower recently completed a five-story addition at its 4500 San Pablo Road campus. The $130.7 million project began phased openings to begin serving patients last year, with full completion expected by the end of 2026.

It’s one part of Mayo’s at-large “Bold. Forward. Unbound” plan — a multi-billion-dollar effort to add more than four million square feet across the system’s U.S. campuses in Florida, Arizona and Minnesota.

In Florida, that encompasses 725,000 square feet of new clinical, research and education space, including the Duan Family Building, a $320 million facility opened last year advancing cancer treatment.

The tower also includes shell space for future growth and capacity for three additional stories.

“Philanthropy makes it possible for us to build the future of healthcare,” Kent Thielen said. “We are deeply grateful to Paula and Randy for their extraordinary generosity and trust. Their gift will change lives — now and for generations to come — in our community and around the world.”

The internationally renowned medical institution is executing on a long-term plan that stretches nearly a century into the future — a 90-year master plan backed by more than a billion dollars in investment and grounded in what Mayo leaders describe as a “destination complex care” mission.