A key building at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center has been named to honor Susie Wilson, the late Santa Clara County Supervisor who was a champion of the hospital throughout her time in elected office — and even after it ended.

The Susanne B. Wilson Women and Children’s Center was dedicated Wednesday afternoon at a ceremony attended by members of Wilson’s family, elected officials from San Jose and Santa Clara County, a number of Wilson’s former colleagues and staff members and VMC staff.

“When you leave here today, I hope that you find strength, as I do, in Susie’s example, and I hope that you find strength, as I do, in the battles that she fought and won to keep the doors of this hospital open to all,” Valley Health Foundation Executive Director Michael Elliott said. “Because that fight is now our fight and if she can win it, so can we.”

Santa Clara County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg said she has strived to build on Wilson’s leadership by championing childcare and supporting the growth of the public hospital system.

“Susie got things done, whether it was keeping Valley Medical Center at a very precarious time or working collaboratively with her colleagues and community partners to secure funding for a much-needed apartment building for low-income families that would eventually carry her name,” Ellenberg said. “I imagine Susie would be delighted to see the work being done here — including pediatric intensive care, neonatal intensive care, labor and delivery — in a building that bears her name.”

A groundbreaking politician, Wilson is the third woman elected to the San Jose City Council and second to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, where she served for 12 years before leaving office in 1990. Two years after her election to the board, she was joined by Zoe Lofgren and Becky Morgan — giving the board a female majority for the first time. After leaving the board, she helped found the organization now known as the Valley Health Foundation to raise money for the county’s health system, which has grown to five hospitals.

When Prop. 13 led to budget cuts at the county level, Wilson fought to save Valley Medical Center and its social programs. Bob Brownstein, who was Wilson’s chief of staff for 12 years, said when he came into the office every Monday his job “was to make sure VMC was still open on Friday.”

The honor has been in the works for more than six years, and Elliott said the COVID-19 pandemic, the expansion of the hospital system and other issues delayed the renaming ceremony.

In 2018, then-Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager, former Supervisor Cindy Chavez and then-VMC Foundation Executive Director Chris Wilder, led the charge to name the building in Wilson’s honor. Despite her failing health, Wilson attended the Nov. 6, 2018 meeting — coincidentally on Election Day — and received a standing ovation following the board’s unanimous approval. She died not long afterward in December 2018 at age 90.

“I know at times this job is hard,” Wilson told the board that November day. “Sometimes, it’s not easy to say no and sometimes we have to. But the most joyous time is to be able to say yes and to say yes to life and to love life.”

LASER DAYS OF WINTER: The Tech Interactive is hoping to bring in music fans to its IMAX dome theater by bringing in a laser show series over the next few weekends. Although pairing tunes with colorful laser displays isn’t new — and it’s a regular event at the De Anza College planetarium — it’s the first time for the Tech, which recently has been augmenting its regular educational IMAX programming with more popular fare including concert films and big-screen blockbusters.

A laser light show in the theater at Tech Interactive in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group) 

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The series kicks off with a Led Zeppelin laser show at 8:30 p.m. this Friday and Saturday (and you can also catch the documentary “Becoming Led Zeppelin” with a separate ticket at 6 p.m. each of those days).  The weekend wraps up with Billie Eilish and Lady Gaga shows on Sunday. Future artists featured include Taylor Swift on Valentine’s Day, Beyonce, Michael Jackson, Prince, David Bowie, Daft Punk, Queen and, of course, Pink Floyd.

Zoom over to www.thetech.org for the full schedule and tickets.

LISTEN UP: There’s been a big response to a retreat Saturday morning being hosted by Westhope Presbyterian Church in Saratoga with John Phillip Newell and Cami Twilling. He’s a teacher and leading advocate of Celtic spirituality and she’s the director of Colorado-based Earth & Soul, a Celtic initiative of study, spiritual practice and compassionate action. The retreat will focus on the themes in Newell’s new book, “The Great Search: Turning to Earth and Soul in the Quest for Healing and Home.” If you’re intrigued, there may be some spots remaining. Go to westhope.org for details.

And, if your personal quest involves listening to a great writer, the South Bay Writers Club has just the answer. My colleague, Julia Prodis Sulek, will speak at the group’s meeting Saturday morning at the Willow Glen Library sharing how she manages to find those details that make her stories so compelling. Get more info on that 10:30 a.m. talk at www.southbaywriters.com.