Hall of Fame Inductees

Helen Lathrop Bunge began her career in 1931. After earning her doctoral degree from Teachers College, Bunge became executive officer of the Institute of Research and Services in Nursing Education at Teachers College. During her six years there, the Institute administered 13 projects related to nursing education, using data gathered from schools, hospitals, and public health services. In 1952, Bunge's efforts to promote nursing research culminated in circulation of the first issue of Nursing Research to 8,500 subscribers. When this publication was undertaken by the American Journal of Nursing Company, she was served as chairperson of the editorial board. In recognition of her efforts, she received the Achievement Award in Research and Scholarship from the Nursing Education Alumni Association's Teachers College and the Mary Adelaide Nutting Award from the National League for Nursing.

Margaret Baggett Dolan began a career in public health nursing in 1935, as a staff nurse. During the next 10 years she served as a epidemiological nurse and tuberculosis nursing consultant with the United States Public Health Service, and later became head of the Department of Public Health Nursing, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina.

As the 19th president of the American Nurses Association (ANA), she presented congressional testimony and served on a number of government advisory bodies. Equally active in the American Public Health Association, she served as its president and held membership on the governing council executive board. An international figure in health care, Dolan served as a consultant to the governments of Ghana and Thailand and represented ANA at congresses of the International Council of Nurses. She received the ANA Honorary Membership Award and the Pearl McIver Public Health Nurse Award. After her death, the American Public Health Association established a lectureship endowment fund in her honor.

Katharine Densford Dreves is best remembered for her contributions to organized nursing and to nursing education. From 1944 to 1948, Dreves served two consecutive terms as the American Nurses Association (ANA) president.

During her presidency, the ANA Professional Counseling and Placement Service and the Economic Security Program were initiated and the association's first platform was adopted to remove the barriers against minority group nurses seeking ANA membership. As vice-president of the International Council of Nurses, she was the official observer at meetings of the World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization and represented ANA at the first national conference of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization in 1948. Dreves also served as president of the Minnesota Nurses Association, Minnesota League for Nursing, and Sigma Theta Tau.

Ruth Benson Freeman's major contributions to nursing were as an educator, author, and speaker in the field of public health nursing. After receiving her doctorate, she became a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1962, retiring from that position in 1971.

Freeman was president and member of the board of directors of the National Health Council and the National League for Nursing. She served on the governing council and executive board of the American Public Health Association, as chairperson of the American Nurses Association (ANA) Committee on Functions, Standards, and Qualifications of Public Health Nurses, and as a member of the executive committee of the ANA Division on Community Health Nursing Practice. She received the ANA Pearl McIver Public Health Nurse Award, Florence Nightingale Medal from the International Red Cross, Mary Adelaide Nutting Award from the National League for Nursing, and Bronfman Prize from the American Public Health Association. She was named an honorary fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 1981.

Throughout fifty years of service, Alma Elizabeth Gault contributed significantly to nursing practice, education, and integration in nursing. She received her basic nursing education from the Philadelphia General Hospital School of Nursing, where she later became head nurse.

Her account of this experience is one of her earliest articles on clinical nursing. In 1944, she became dean of Meharry Medical College School of Nursing, a black school in Nashville, TN. Gault first developed a diploma program that received accreditation and later developed a baccalaureate program which allowed Meharry to become the first segregated black school to hold membership in the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Nursing. In 1953, Gault became associate professor and then acting dean of the School of Nursing at Vanderbilt University, Nashville. She retired in 1959 as associate professor emeritus, but returned in 1965 to become dean of the school. Upon her retirement as dean, the mayor of Nashville proclaimed Alma Gault Day in recognition of her achievements.

Nurse executive, journalist, editor, researcher, and consultant, Janet M. Geister conducted one of the first governmental studies of children's day care centers. In 1917, the Children's Bureau conducted the campaign, "Save 100,000 lives," based upon her studies.

In 1919, she became field secretary and then educational secretary of the National Organization for Public Health Nursing, where she conducted surveys and studies of nursing education, visiting nursing, and hospitals. Geister became executive director of the American Nurses Association (ANA) in 1927. She served as first vice-president and member of the ANA board of directors. Geister was active in the American Association of Industrial Nurses, American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, and Association of Operating Room Nurses. Editor of Trained Nurse and Hospital Review, Geister was the author of over 300 articles on nursing and health care.

An innovator in nursing practice, Lydia Eloise Hall established and directed the Loeb Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation at Montefiore Hospital in Bronx, New York, from 1963 to 1969.

Through her research in nursing and long term care, Hall developed a theory that the direct professional nurse-to-patient relationship is itself therapeutic and that nursing care is the chief therapy for the chronically ill patient. Montefiore Hospital invited her to implement her theories by establishing and becoming director of the Loeb Center. She published over 20 articles about the Loeb Center and her theories of long term care and chronic disease control. She held a bachelor of science degree in public health nursing and a master of arts degree from Teachers College. In 1967, she received the Teachers College Nursing Education Alumni Association Achievement in Nursing Practice Award.

An early proponent of nursing research as a priority activity for the development of nursing science, Katherine J. Hoffman was one of the founders of the Western Society for Research in Nursing. She was equally committed to graduate education for nurses and assisted in the establishment of the Western Council for Higher Education in Nursing.

The first nurse in the state of Washington to earn a PhD (1956), she became one of the highest ranking women administrators at the University of Washington.

Hoffman was born April 18, 1910, in Grand Forks, British Columbia, and moved to Tacoma, Washington, with her family in 1923. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in English Literature in 1929, and a diploma in nursing from Tacoma General Hospital School of Nursing in 1934. While working as a night supervisor, she completed the requirements for an advanced obstetrical nursing certificate, and in 1937, began her career as a nurse educator at the College of Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran College. In 1941, Hoffman earned a master's degree in nursing and fifteen years later the doctorate, both from the University of Washington in Seattle.

During her thirty-four year career in nursing education, Hoffman served as mentor to countless students and colleagues. Her commitment to scientific study was exemplified by the nurse-scientist program she established at the University of Washington in 1963. The program enabled nurses pursuing doctoral study to undertake research in scientific disciplines like microbiology, physiology, and anthropology. Hoffman was dedicated to the expansion of scientific principles in nursing and the use of those principles in the advancement of nursing practice. An expert in curriculum development and program evaluation, Hoffman was a consultant to many nursing schools across the country. Her educational ideas were student oriented, interdisciplinary in nature, and research focused. Highly respected in the University of Washington community, Hoffman's ability to promote collaboration among various disciplines was an asset in the formation of a health sciences center.

Hoffman was a charter member of the American Academy of Nursing and an active participant in professional organizations, including the American Nurses Association, National League for Nursing, and Washington State Nurses Association. She was consistently involved in advisory groups studying professional standards, educational criteria, and research development. Upon her retirement in 1975, Hoffman was named professor emeritus in recognition of her years of service and outstanding contributions to the University of Washington. Acknowledged for her remarkable achievements, Katherine Hoffman is also remembered for her warmth, compassion, and ability to relate to others.

Estelle Massey Osborne was the first black nurse in the U.S. to earn a master's degree. In 1945, she became assistant professor at New York University, the university's first black instructor.

As president of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, Osborne increased membership and forged relationships with the American Nurses Association (ANA), National League for Nursing, and National Organization for Public Health Nursing. In 1946, she received the Mary Mahoney Award for her efforts to broaden opportunities for black nurses to move into the mainstream of professional nursing. A member of the ANA Board of Directors from 1948-1952, Osborne was an ANA delegate to the International Council of Nurses. She was a member of the National Urban League, first vice-president of the National Council of Negro Women, and an honorary member of Chi Eta Phi Sorority and the American Academy of Nursing. In 1982, the Estelle M. Osborne Memorial Scholarship was established to annually honor a black nurse pursuing a master's degree in nursing.

After earning a master of arts degree in teaching biological sciences from Teachers College, Columbia University, Frances Reiter later became a professor at the college. She left Teachers College in 1960 to become the first dean of the Graduate School of Nursing, New York, Medical College. She retired as dean emeritus in 1969. Reiter coined the term "nurse clinician" and advocated the need for advanced preparation for nurse clinicians.

She was chairperson of the American Nurses Association Committee on Education when the first position paper on nursing education was published. Reiter received the Honorary Membership Award, American Nurses Association; Florence Nightingale Award, International Red Cross; Distinguished Service Award, National League for Nursing; and the Medal of Excellence, New York Medical College. She was a honorary fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.

Mary May Roberts served as editor of The American Journal of Nursing from 1921-1949. When she became co-editor in 1921 with Katherine DeWitt, she had 22 years of nursing experience, a baccalaureate degree, and a certificate in Administration of Nursing Schools from Teachers College, Columbia University. In 1923, she became sole editor, a post she would hold for more than a quarter century. During her editorship, the circulation increased from 20,000 to more than 100,000.

In 1934, concerned about the need for a sound public relations program for the profession, she launched the "Nursing Information Bureau," almost wholly financed and administered by the Journal company. In 1949, she retired, becoming editor emeritus. During retirement, she authored books on nursing in America, including The Army Nurse Corps--Yesterday and Today, and maintained her keen and sensitive interest in nursing and the Journal. She died in 1959 while at work on an editorial in the Journal offices.

A prominent leader in public health nursing, Emilie Gleason Sargent contributed significantly to improving health care for the elderly and the chronically ill. After receiving a diploma from Mt. Sinai School of Nursing, New York, she became field director and assistant director of the Detroit Visiting Nursing Association (VNA) in Michigan, where she served as executive director from 1924 until her retirement in 1964.

In appreciation of her many achievements, the VNA staff established the Emilie Gleason Sargent Prize, to be awarded annually to a public health nurse in the School of Public Health, University of Michigan. Sargent served as president of Detroit District Nurses Association, Michigan Public Health Association, and National Organization for Public Health Nursing. She was a member of the board of directors of the American Journal of Nursing Company, American Nurses Association, and National League for Nursing. She was vice president and a fellow of the American Public Health Association. She received the ANA Pearl McIver Public Health Nurse Award in 1960.

After joining the Henry Street Settlement Nursing Service, New York City, as a volunteer and staff nurse, Anne Hervey Strong became determined to devote her career to public health nursing. In 1918, she became the first director of the School of Public Health Nursing, Simmons College, a post she held until her death in 1925.

As an educator, Strong was concerned about the correlation of theoretical and practical education in nursing. She was a member of the National League of Nursing Education, National Organization for Public Health Nursing, American Child Health Association, and Massachusetts Nurses Association. After her death in 1925, the National Organization for Public Health Nursing adopted a resolution in tribute to her which read "Anne Strong, through her rare personality, keen insight, scholarly mind, and lofty vision, has stimulated careful thinking in others and has been one of those largely responsible for sound progress in public health nursing."

From 1951 to 1972, Julia Charlotte Thompson was director of the American Nurses Association's (ANA) Washington, DC office and served as the association's first full-time lobbyist.

As a lobbyist, she worked to improve Social Security benefits for the disabled and retired, and for the passage of Medicare legislation. In 1965, she traveled with President Lyndon Johnson to Independence, Missouri, for the signing of the Medicare bill. She was successful in convincing Congress to grant registered nurses in the military the ranks commensurate with their responsibili- ties. In 1956, her efforts to gain federal support for nursing education were rewarded with the passage of the first nurse traineeship program. She was also instrumental in securing passage of the Nurse Training Acts of 1964 and 1971. Thompson retired in 1972, but continued to serve ANA as a consultant while completing her book, The ANA in Washington, a summary of the federal legislative activities of ANA during her directorship.

A pioneer in nursing research, Ellwynne Mae Vreeland served 23 years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service. She was instrumental in securing nearly $3.5 million under the Bolton Act to fund education for 10,000 graduate students in 57 colleges and universities nationwide.

Her most outstanding achievement was the development and implementation of the first nationwide federal extramural research program for nursing. In 1962, she became chief of the Research and Resources Branch of the Division of Nursing, Public Health Service, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. During Vreeland's tenure with the Public Health Service, the emphasis of research shifted from nursing education, service, and manpower issues to studies of clinical nursing and its effect on patients. As early as 1968, she supported the establishment of a National Institute of Nursing in the National Institutes of Health. In 1966, two years before her retirement, she received the United States Public Health Service Medal.

Sister Mary Berenice Beck received the first doctorate in nursing education awarded by The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., and is one of the first ten U.S. nurses to earn a doctorate. This distinction also made her the first doctorally prepared nurse in a religious order. Through her leadership at the American Nurses Association (ANA), the first code of ethics for the profession was adopted. While working with Marquette University, Beck completed the merger of the training school with the university and enrolled the first collegiate nursing students. After serving as dean of the Marquette University College of Nursing, Beck was professor and department chairman for ten years of the Department of Nursing Education of the Marquette Graduate School.

She was a member of the Committee on Nursing Education of the Catholic Hospital Association, Association of Collegiate Schools of Nursing, and National League of Nursing Education. She was president of the Wisconsin League of Nursing Education, vice president of ANA's Professional Counseling and Placement Service, and board members of the Wisconsin Nurses Association, American Journal of Nursing Company, and ANA.

Adda Eldredge gained national and international recognition for her efforts to upgrade nursing education and promote sound legislation for nursing practice. In 1899, the Illinois State Nurses Association enlisted her help to secure passage of a nurse practice act.

In 1907, she received Registration Certificate One under the new Illinois nurse practice act. She served as president of the Illinois State Nurses Association and first vice president of the American Nurses Association (ANA). In 1917, she became interstate secretary of ANA, National League of Nursing Education, and American Journal of Nursing. During World War I, she was loaned to the Committee on Nursing of the Council of National Defense to assist the nursing student reserve program. Eldredge was a member of Sigma Theta Tau and served on the board of directors of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) and as an official ANA delegate to four ICN congresses. The Wisconsin Nurses Association established a scholarship fund in her name to assist nurses to continue their education.

Upon graduation from the Newport Hospital Training School for Nurses, Rhode Island, Mary Sewall Gardner became superintendent and later director of the Providence District Nursing Association. During her 26-year leadership, the association became one of the most progressive public health agencies in the nation.

Gardner remained with the association until her retirement in 1931, although she took several leaves of absence to engage in professional activities in the U.S. and abroad. Gardner urged the establishment of the National Organization for Public Health Nursing, where she later served as president. In 1918, she accepted the wartime position of chief nurse of the American Red Cross Tuberculosis Commission for Italy to direct Red Cross efforts during the war. She is perhaps best known for her book, Public Health Nursing, the first American text on the subject. In recognition of her pioneering efforts in public health nursing, she received an honorary master's degree from Brown University, Rhode Island. She also received the Walter Burns Saunders Medal for distinguished service to nursing.

The accomplishments of Elizabeth Sterling Soule during her 43-year career include contributions to nursing education, public health nursing, and organized nursing. In 1920, she accepted a temporary position with the University of Washington as an instructor of public health nursing.

This temporary affiliation became a 30-year appointment during which she built the university's School of Nursing. A staunch proponent of baccalaureate nursing education programs, Soule was among the 20 original representatives of collegiate nursing programs who formed the Association of Collegiate Schools of Nursing and became the organization's president. She was a member of the board of directors of the American Nurses Association and an honorary member of the National League of Nursing Education. Soule was a national honorary member of Sigma Theta Tau and was named Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus. She received an honorary doctor of science degree from Montana State College.

Effie J. Taylor gained international recognition as a pioneer in psychiatric and mental health nursing and as the leader who held the international nursing community together during World War II. Five years after graduation, Taylor was eventually appointed associate principal for the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic at Johns Hopkins, the first university clinic of its kind.

From 1934 until her retirement in 1944, Taylor became the dean of the Yale University School of Nursing. In 1937, she became president of the International Council of Nurses and served ten years as the organization dealt with the turmoil of World War II. She received the Medal for Humanitarian Work from Finland and was made an honorary member of the National Council of Nurses of Finland, Danish Nurses Association, and Norwegian Nurses Association. She also received the Florence Nightingale Medal of the International Red Cross and the M. Adelaide Nutting Award of the National League for Nursing. She received an honorary master of arts degree from Yale University and an honorary degree as a doctor of humane letters from Keuka College, New York.