ROCHESTER — “Thank you Mayo Clinic & Staff for the Wonderful Care.”

It’s a simple message but also a prominent one, as it’s printed on a large, south-facing billboard at the intersection of 4th Ave. SW and Broadway Ave. in downtown Rochester.

The words — in white text set against a purple background — accompany an image of Julia Reagan, whose name is also on the billboard. Identical messages are displayed on four other static billboards in the city, as well as six electronic ones.

The Rochester billboards are among hundreds of “in memory” tributes up across the U.S. for Julia Reagan, who died on June 12 at 81. Her husband Bill Reagan is the owner and founder of Reagan Outdoor Advertising, the company that owns roughly 90% of Rochester’s billboards, said Jeremy Gunderson, general manager of Reagan’s Rochester office.

The “thank you” messages for Mayo Clinic have been up for about a month and are scheduled to come down in the near future, Gunderson said.

Reagan Outdoor Advertising moved into the Rochester market in 2019. At that time, Bill Reagan told the Post Bulletin that he had been “coming to Mayo Clinic and Rochester for annual check-ups for 16 years. … We really enjoy the community.”

“They have always received their health treatments and check-ups at Mayo,” Gunderson said of the Reagans.

In 2023, Bill Reagan purchased the Guest House Inn & Suites — now the Med City Inn & Suites — and the attached Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que building along Civic Center Drive for $4.25 million, the Post Bulletin reported.

In total, Reagan Outdoor Advertising has devoted 300 of its billboards across the country to Julia Reagan’s memory, according to KSL NewsRadio in Salt Lake City, Utah, the place the Reagans called home.

“I kissed her goodnight the night before, but I never really had a chance to say goodbye to her,” Bill Reagan told KSL. “And so now she’s right on the board so I can say goodbye every time I see one.”

Bill and Julia met in 1965 and eloped three weeks later, according to Julia’s obituary. At the time, Julia was pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of Utah and Bill was in law school. By the time the couple completed their advanced degrees, they had two children — and they would go on to have two more. Julia was a traveler, a sports fan and an active community member through organizations such as the National Council of Jewish Women, Women’s Legislative Council and Assistance League.

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