POTSDAM --Canton-Potsdam Hospital's expanded medical office facility, 49 Lawrence Ave., was formally dedicated in a special gathering of donors, board members, medical and nurse practitioners, and staff Oct. 2.

Officials named the facility the Helen Snell Cheel Medical Campus, in memory and honor of the philanthropist well known for her strong connections to the North Country.

An avid Clarkson Golden Knights men's hockey fan, Cheel was born in Potsdam and spent most of her adult life in New Jersey, where her husband owned a residential development company, according to hospital board member Donald R. Dangremond.

She was the daughter of U.S. Congressman, later minority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, Bertrand H. Snell and Sara Merrick Snell, who served as a founding board member of the Potsdam General Hospital in the 1920s. Mrs. Cheel, who lived to the age of 100, bequeathed a legacy gift of $5.7 million to the Hospital.

She had also provided other generous gifts to the emergency department and the chemical dependency detoxification program, according to Dangremond.

Guests were offered tours of the facility following the formal program. The primary care suite is expected to open for its first patient visits Oct. 7.

An urgent care suite is being completed across the hallway and is expected to open by the end of 2013. The Helen Snell Cheel Medical Campus began as the former St. Mary's parochial school. A suite for visiting specialists is also being renovated

For more information about CPH primary and specialist medical care visit cphospital.org or cphprimarycare.org.