VA hospital renamed after Tibor Rubin

GARDEN GROVE

War hero, Holocaust survivor and longtime Garden Grove resident Tibor Rubin's name will soon adorn the Long Beach Veterans Affairs hospital after President Barack Obama signed into law a bill changing the medical center's title, the White House announced.

"Right now, it is the Tibor Rubin hospital," said Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, who introduced the bill to change the name of the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Long Beach. "A VA hospital is a major thing. It's a huge accomplishment."

Officially, the hospital is the Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center. No date is set for the official rededication.

Rubin served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, singlehandedly taking on an enemy advance for 24 hours so his regiment could escape along the Taegu-Pusan Road. He has received a number of honors in recent years, including the Medal of Honor in 2005.

In 2014, he was one of 145 Korean War Medal of Honor recipients whose portraits were displayed on a U.S. Postal Service stamp booklet. Last year, Orange County named a Garden Grove library after him.

But having the Veterans Affairs hospital named after him may be bigger than anything short of the Medal of Honor, said Lowenthal, and Rubin's daughter, Rosie Rubin.

"He was a patient there, he took presents to the patients there, he was an integral part of the hospital," Rosie Rubin said. "It's such an honor. It's kind of unbelievable."

The president's signature, on Dec. 16. came shortly after the one-year anniversary of Rubin's death. It capped a massive bipartisan effort to rename the hospital: The House of Representatives passed it unanimously and the Senate approved it wth a voice vote.

"If you're going to rename an institution," Lowenthal said, "he is exactly the type of person you'd want to name a building after."