Dwayne Rutherford and Heather Reichert, of Winnipeg, made a bequest to St. Boniface Hospital in their estate in 2023.
May 13, 2026
For many years, Heather Reichert of Winnipeg had an insider’s view of Manitoba’s health-care system through her work. And what she saw was St. Boniface Hospital at the forefront of compassionate patient care and responsible financial management.
Reichert, who retired in 2017, saw the health system up close as Chief Financial Officer for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, and then as Associate Deputy Minister, Finance Division, for Manitoba Health. She also served on St. Boniface Hospital Foundation’s Board of Directors from 2015 to 2020. (Her husband, Dwayne Rutherford, meanwhile, was a Certified Professional Accountant with Builders Furniture Ltd. of Winnipeg for more than 37 years.)
Her rare point of view helped the couple decide in 2023 to leave gifts to the Hospital in their wills, making them part of the Legacy of Hope Society.
Board experience instilled confidence
As a member of the Foundation Board, Reichert saw firsthand how well cared-for donations are at St. Boniface. “That really was what prompted us to decide that we would leave something in our wills to the Hospital,” she said.
“The stewardship of the funds is top-notch. I know how careful we on the Board were with the Foundation’s investment funds,” she continued. “I know how carefully decisions were made on where the donated funds were going.”
“I was comfortable knowing that the money that Dwayne and I left would be well taken care of and do the most beneficial things that it could.”
Family history at St. B
On the phone from their winter home in Mesa, Arizona, Reichert said St. Boniface Hospital has always held a special place in her heart.
“When I was asked to join the Foundation Board, I agreed because I had a real kinship, or fondness for St. B,” she remembered.
“I was born there. My eldest daughter was born there. Both of my grandkids were born there. My grandmother had major heart surgery there – even then, the Hospital was world-renowned. Later, my mother had a TAVI procedure there in 2017,” she explained. A TAVI (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation) is a safer alternative to open-heart surgery for at-risk patients to receive a new heart valve.
Donor funding through the Foundation helped launch the Hospital’s TAVI program in 2012. “I remember in my career when TAVIs were first being done at St. Boniface,” she said. “So, I had reason to know that St. Boniface was a good organization from my work experience as well.”
Confident to let work continue
Reichert and Rutherford did not designate an initiative or area at the Hospital to support in their wills, although she notes cardiac care is important to them both.
Wherever the need is greatest suits them, she said. “It is because I do feel confident that the Foundation, working with the Hospital, puts the money where the greatest needs are.”
“So, I would hope our gift would go where the greatest needs are, and it would go to make a difference at St. B in other people’s lives like it did in our family’s lives,” she added.