Hall of Fame Inductees

Damer, a member of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), was an outstanding nursing leader at the turn of the century -- a critical time in nursing history.

She served as the leader, and often founding member, of several nursing organizations; promoted the advancement of educational standards; promoted public health care for tuberculosis patients; advocated for the temperance movement as a public health issue; and worked to secure the legal recognition of the nursing profession -- a seemingly hopeless endeavor at that time.

Damer worked as a private duty nurse for eight years and then in public health for several more. Damer was a member of the first Board of Nurse Examiners and became president of the board. She also served as president of the Buffalo Nurses Association where she was chair of the committee that organized the first state nurses association, NYSNA, of which she later served as president. She also was president of the American Journal of Nursing Company and she served for five years as the second president of the Nurses' Associated Alumnae (now known as the ANA). Damer later worked with tuberculosis patients in a hospital and started a social services department for them. In 1906, she became supervisor of a convalescent home for children.

Unfortunately, at the height of her career, she was seriously injured in a carriage accident and died five years later. At the time of her death, Annie Damer was probably one of the most well-known nurses in the country.

As the United States was preparing for World War I, Clara Dutton Noyes faced an enormous task -- preparing nurses for duty. Noyes, a member of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), excelled at this and, subsequently, strengthened the nursing profession internationally.

As director of the Red Cross' Bureau of Nursing (and later as director of nursing service and chairman of the National Committee on American Red Cross Nursing), Noyes was responsible for the enrollment, organization and assignment of nurses to duty (more than 21,000 nurses by the end of the war) and the Red Cross' curriculum. For 20 years during and following World War I, she ensured the availability of nursing care in war and disaster, including providing nurses for the indigent during the Depression.

Noyes toured post-war Europe, where nurses were assigned for general relief, public health, child welfare or hospital work. Noyes then made recommendations for the development of public health services and nursing schools in Europe that impacted nursing worldwide.

Before her appointment at the Red Cross, Noyes served as a nursing and hospital superintendent at several institutions and founded the first school for midwives in the United States. She served as president of the ANA (1918-1922), the National League of Nursing Education, the board of the American Journal of Nursing and twice as vice president of the International Council of Nurses. While president of ANA, she was instrumental in bringing together the three national nursing organizations to establish a national headquarters and the Bureau of Nursing Information.

Dorothy Reilly was an internationally known nurse, educator and scholar who was instrumental in the development of nursing education in the United States and abroad. She wrote her first book, Lippincott's Quick Reference Book for Nurses, in 1955 and wrote prolifically about nursing education throughout her career. She also was a consultant to nursing schools around the world and taught future nursing school faculty.

Reilly, a member of the Michigan Nurses Association, began her career as a hospital head nurse and then focused on nursing education. She held faculty positions at Holyoke Hospital of Nursing, Columbia University and Wayne State University College of Nursing. In 1987, she retired from Wayne State, became a professor emerita and, until her death, volunteered her time obtaining grants for clinics in Detroit and scholarships for college students.

Reilly first became a teacher during World War II, a time when " nursing school residence...was an effective means of protecting young women and regulating their lives in accord with the values of a 'proper lady.' Reilly, who had studied in a women's liberal arts college, hoped to make teaching more satisfying for students and teachers. She often used unique teaching methods to bring the textbooks to life and strengthen the teacher-student relationship. Her innovative outreach approaches to graduate nursing education were acknowledged by the National Institutes of Health with a decade of funding awards totaling nearly $3 million. Reilly received many awards and honors for her work, including several American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year awards.

Hildegard Peplau, the "mother of psychiatric nursing," was a true pioneer in the development of the theory and practice of psychiatric and mental health nursing. Her achievements, including her revolutionary work in patient-nurse relationships, are valued by nurses around the world and her ideas have been incorporated into virtually every nursing specialty and into the practices of other health care professionals.

Peplau introduced the "nurse-patient relationship" idea 40 years ago, a time when patients did not actively participate in their own care. Peplau's publications, including her classic book, Interpersonal Relations in Nursing, have been translated into several languages.

Throughout her career, Peplau, a member of the New Jersey State Nurses Association, actively contributed to the ANA by serving on various committees and task forces. She is the only person to have been both the executive director and the president of ANA. She was a member of many local, state and federal nursing committees and a consultant to many organizations, including the World Health Organization and the U.S. Air Force.

Peplau was committed to nursing education throughout her career. She was a visiting professor at schools around the world and a professor at Rutgers University until her retirement in 1974. She was a professor emerita at Rutgers University, College of Nursing. She received numerous awards and honors for her contributions to nursing and held 11 honorary degrees.

Dorothy Smith, a Florida Nurses Association member, was a national pioneer in nursing education who served as founding dean of the University of Florida College of Nursing and chief of nursing practice at the university's teaching hospital. Smith led the college from its inception in 1956 until her retirement in 1971, creating national recognition of the program by introducing several important nursing innovations.

Her belief that clinical nursing practice was the essence of professional nursing motivated all her innovative contributions to nursing, including: fully integrating nursing education and nursing service (which laid the groundwork for advanced practice registered nursing); fully integrating nursing education into the university; and insisting that nurses in the university's teaching hospital develop a written plan of care and systematically evaluate patient's responses (known as evidence-based nursing practice today). Smith also insisted that nursing educators be directly involved in nursing care, an idea which was unheard of then. Until Smith developed the "unification model," nursing was taught as an apprentice-like technical training program in hospitals. Her work helped nursing education become a science-based curriculum at top universities.

Prior to coming to the University of Florida to help implement one of the first interdisciplinary health sciences centers in the country, Smith was a professor at Duke University School of Nursing. Smith authored more than 30 articles and co-wrote a textbook called System of Nursing Practice.

Acknowledged nationally and internationally as a distinguished pediatric nurse and an advocate for advanced education in pediatric nursing, Florence Guinness Blake was also an eminent scholar, teacher, and researcher.

Blake was born in Wisconsin on November 30, 1907, to Thelma Dunlap Blake, a talented musician, and James Blake, a Baptist minister. In her youth, Blake was encouraged by family members to choose a career in nursing, and she subsequently entered the Michael Reese Hospital School of Nursing in Chicago, where she earned a diploma in 1928. By 1932, Blake's interest in improving the care of children had grown to the extent that she enrolled in Teachers College, Columbia University, for preparation as a teacher of pediatric nursing. Completing the requirements for a bachelor of science degree in 1936, Blake taught pediatric nursing at Union Medical College in Peiping, China for the next three years. During that time, she refined her innovative ideas regarding the relationship between advanced clinical education and nursing practice.

After attaining a master of science degree from the University of Michigan in 1941, Blake taught pediatric nursing at several prestigious schools, and in 1946, established and directed the graduate program in advanced nursing care of children at the University of Chicago. A prolific writer, Blake authored the classic, The Child, His Parents, and the Nurse, and co-authored various editions of Essentials of Pediatric Nursing, and Nursing Care of Children, both of which were outstanding textbooks in the discipline. A recipient of numerous awards for her achievements, Blake was frequently consulted by national organizations concerned with child care.

In the final years of her career, she served as professor and director of the graduate program in pediatric nursing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing, where she inspired and challenged nursing students, nurse colleagues, and the physicians with whom she collaborated. Following her retirement in 1970, Blake continued her involvement in community affairs until her death on September 12, 1983.

A pioneer in advanced clinical education, Florence Blake left a legacy of nursing knowledge that continues to influence the care of children in the United States and abroad.

As superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps from 1943 to 1947, and the first woman to be commissioned in the regular army of the United States, Florence Aby Blanchfield was among the most respected nurse leaders of the twentieth century. Devoting a significant part of her illustrious career to serving her country, Blanchfield's military experiences included meritorious service in World War I and World War II.

Born April 1, 1882, in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, Blanchfield was one of eight children of Joseph and Mary Anderson Blanchfield. Her goal to become a nurse was achieved in 1906, when she graduated from Southside Hospital Training School for Nurses in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Blanchfield's early employment history includes positions in private duty nursing, hospital nursing in Pennsylvania and the Panama Canal Zone, and industrial nursing for the United States Steel Corporation. In 1917, she joined the Army Nurse Corps, left for France with Base Hospital #27, and served as acting chief nurse of Camp Hospital #15.

Following separation from the military in 1919, Blanchfield returned to Pennsylvania for a brief period and re-entered the Army Nurse Corps in 1920. Over the next fifteen years, Blanchfield completed assignments across the United States, and in the Philippines and China. In 1935, she joined the United States Surgeon General's staff in Washington, DC, and was named superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps in 1943. World War II generated a critical need for nurses and under the leadership of Blanchfield, the corps was expanded from approximately 1,000 to a force of 57,000 nurses. In recognition of her devotion and contributions, she was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in 1945.

Although Blanchfield successively held the ranks of first lieutenant (1920), captain (1939), and lieutenant colonel (1942), those ranks were relative in nature. Nurses were denied the rights, privileges, and pay enjoyed by male commissioned officers. Appalled by this inequity, Blanchfield struggled to achieve full military rank for nurses. In 1947, the Army-Navy Nurse Act authorized placement of the Army Nurse Corps in the regular army with equal pay and privileges for commissioned nurses. On July 18, 1947, Blanchfield was commissioned as lieutenant colonel in the regular army by General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Following her retirement in 1947, Blanchfield remained active as a consultant and author. She promoted the establishment of specialized courses of study and influenced the development of a program in nursing administration for army nurses. In 1951, she received the Florence Nightingale Medal of the International Red Cross for her service to humanity. Blanchfield died on May 12, 1971, and was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. As a final tribute to this extraordinary nurse, the Colonel Florence A. Blanchfield Army Community Hospital at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was named in her honor and dedicated in September, 1982.

Dorothy A. Cornelius the distinction of being the only nurse to serve as president of the American Nurses Association, International Council of Nurses, and American Journal of Nursing Company.

Recipient of numerous honors and awards, including two honorary doctorates, Cornelius was recognized by government officials at national, state, and local levels.

A native of Pennsylvania, Cornelius was born on March 9, 1918, one of four children in the Cornelius family. In 1939, she received a diploma in nursing from the Conemaugh Valley Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Johnstown and in 1942, a bachelor of science degree in nursing from the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing. She worked as a public health nurse in Johnstown and later for the American Red Cross in Pennsylvania and Ohio. From 1957 to 1983, she was executive director of the Ohio Nurses Association and editor of the Ohio Nurses Review.

In 1960, Cornelius was appointed to the American Nurses Association's Committee on Economic and General Welfare, and in 1961, to the Governor's Commission on Aging in Ohio. In 1963, she was named one of Ohio's Top Ten Women and chaired the Ohio Women's Defense Council.

Elected first vice-president of the American Nurses Association in 1964, she also chaired the association's Finance, Retirement, and Employee Relations Committees. During her presidency in 1968, the American Nurses Association experienced serious fiscal difficulties, necessitating reductions in staff and programs, and precipitating requests for additional, voluntary funds from constituents. Thousands of members overwhelmingly demonstrated their confidence in Cornelius and the association by responding with generous donations. Irrespective of the association's financial problems, Cornelius initiated collaborative relationships with the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association. For the first time, presidents and executives of those organizations met to discuss mutual goals and strategies.

In 1973, Cornelius was elected president of the International Council of Nurses and successfully kept the membership intact despite conflicts among various member countries. She continued to serve nursing and receive recognition for her accomplishments well into the 1980s. Appointed to national committees by Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, she received commendations from the governors of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and the Ohio Senate and House of Representatives. A charismatic leader, remarkable conciliator, and expert strategist, Dorothy A. Cornelius personified professionalism and excellence.

A modern legend in nursing, Virginia A. Henderson has earned the title "foremost nurse of the 20th century." Her contributions are compared to those of Florence Nightingale because of their far-reaching effects on the national and international nursing communities.

She holds twelve honorary doctoral degrees and has received the International Council of Nursing's Christianne Reimann Prize, which is considered nursing's most prestigious award. An inspiration to nurses everywhere, she has influenced nursing practice, education, and research throughout the world.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 30, 1897, Henderson was the fifth of eight children of Lucy Abbot Henderson and Daniel B. Henderson and a descendant of a long line of scholars and educators. In 1901, the family relocated to Virginia where Henderson grew to adulthood. In 1918, she entered the Army School of Nursing in Washington, DC, and received her diploma in 1921.

Henderson's commitment to teaching was evident as early as 1924, when she accepted her first position as an instructor. In 1934, she joined the nursing faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she had earned bachelor of science and master of arts degrees in nursing education, and where she would remain for the next fourteen years. During that period, she revised Bertha Harmer's Textbook of the Principles and Practice of Nursing, which was published in 1939 and has been widely adopted by schools of nursing.

In 1953, Henderson accepted a position at Yale University School of Nursing as research associate for a funded project designed to survey and assess the status of nursing research in the United States. Following completion of the survey, Henderson was funded to direct the Nursing Studies Index Project from 1959 to 1971. The outcome of this project was publication of the four-volume Nursing Studies Index, the first annotated index of nursing research. Henderson was subsequently named research associate emeritus at Yale University, and at age 75, began a new phase of her career focusing on international teaching and speaking engagements. In 1979, the Connecticut Nurses Association established the Virginia Henderson Award for outstanding contributions to nursing research. Henderson was the first to receive this honor.

For more than seventy years, Henderson has been a visible force for nursing across numerous geographic boundaries. A recipient of many awards, the Sigma Theta Tau International Library is named in Henderson's honor. Over time, she has advocated humane and holistic care for patients, raised important issues in health care, authored one of the most accurate definitions of nursing, promoted nursing research as the basis for nursing knowledge, and above all, represented nursing with dignity, honor, and grace.

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.

One of America's early nurse leaders, Anna Caroline Maxwell validated the effectiveness of appropriately trained nurses during the Spanish-American War and thus influenced the establishment of the Army Nurse Corps in 1901. From 1892 to 1921, Maxwell served as the first superintendent of nurses at the Presbyterian Hospital Training School for Nurses in New York City where she devoted her career to elevating educational standards for nursing.

Born in Bristol, New York, on March 14, 1851, Maxwell moved to Canada with her parents during the early years of her childhood. Returning to the United States in 1874, she settled in Boston and entered the Boston City Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1878. Maxwell studied nursing under the supervision of Linda Richards and completed the requirements for a diploma in 1880. Following employment as superintendent of nurses in Montreal, Boston, and New York, Maxwell accepted the challenge of organizing the new training school for nurses at Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Beginning with a two-year course of classroom instruction and clinical practice in medical/surgical nursing and obstetrics, Maxwell soon added contagious disease nursing to the curriculum. By the turn of the century, the course of study was expanded to three years and by 1917, affiliation with Teachers College provided the impetus for the establishment of a five-year program leading to a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University and a nursing diploma from Presbyterian Hospital.

An expert organizer and administrator, Maxwell was a charter member of the American Society of Superintendents of Training Schools for Nurses (1893), the forerunner of the National League for Nursing, and the Nurses' Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada (1897), the forerunner of the American Nurses Association. She was also a charter member of the International Council of Nurses (1899) and the American Red Cross Nursing Service (1899), and participated in founding the American Journal of Nursing and the Isabel Hampton Robb Scholarship Fund. During the Spanish-American War, Maxwell petitioned the surgeon general for permission to bring trained women nurses to military hospitals to care for the sick and wounded. Sent to a field hospital in Chickamauga, Georgia, Maxwell and her nurses found inadequate sanitation, rampant disease, and a high death rate. With skill and determination, they restored order, improved conditions, and reversed an appalling situation. During World War I, Maxwell again played a central role in preparing nurses for active military service. Following the war, she worked to achieve military rank for nurses in the armed forces.

Recognized by colleagues as one of nursing's pioneers, Maxwell was dedicated to improved nursing education, standardizing nursing procedures, and increasing public acceptance of nursing as a profession. She was the recipient of a medal from the French government for her contributions to nursing throughout the world, and was buried will full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery upon her death in 1929.

Best known for her commitment to nursing research, Lucille Elizabeth Notter collaborated in the development of the journal, Nursing Research, as a vehicle for the dissemination of scientific inquiry in nursing. As the journal's first full-time editor, she influenced nurses to engage in research for the improvement of patient care.

Notter was also the driving force behind publication of the International Nursing Index, and was its editor from 1965 to 1973. By providing access to articles in nursing and health related journals, the index was an important contribution to nurse researchers.

Notter was born in Kentucky on July 13, 1907, the eldest of five children. After graduating from high school, she worked as a clerk in a hospital in Indiana. In 1931, Notter received a diploma from Saints Mary and Elizabeth Hospital School of Nursing in Louisville, Kentucky, and between 1932 and 1940 held various positions at Michael Reese Hospital School of Nursing in Chicago. From 1941 to 1950, Notter was employed by the Visiting Nurse Service of New York and later by the Visiting Nurse Association of Brooklyn. At the same time, she completed a bachelor of science degree in nursing education (1941), a master of arts degree in public health nursing supervision (1946), and a doctor of education degree in educational administration (1956), all from Teachers College, Columbia University.

A recognized scholar and distinguished writer, Notter authored Essentials of Nursing Research, and co-authored with Eugenia K. Spalding Professional Nursing: Foundations, Perspectives, and Relationships. During her tenure as editor of Nursing Research and International Nursing Index, Notter served as director of the American Nurses Association's research conferences which provided a forum for the exchange of scientific data and generated increased interest in scholarly inquiry. Notter's influence on the dissemination of research outcomes was significant. She believed that research was not complete until the findings were shared with other researchers as well as with those who could apply the findings to their practice. As testimony to her contributions, Notter received numerous awards and honors, including the Distinguished Service to Public Health Nursing Award from the American Public Health Association, and Honorary Recognition for Distinguished Service to the Nursing Profession from the New York State Nurses Association.

Intensely involved in the activities of organized nursing, Notter was elected secretary and president of the New York State Nurses Association. She was a strong supporter of economic security and career mobility for nurses and recognized nursing as a potentially powerful political force for the improvement of health care.

Agnes K. Ohlson was born on February 20, 1902, in New Britain, Connecticut, the second of four children of Swedish immigrants, Johannes and Karlina Nelson Ohlson. Ohlson graduated from Boston's Peter Bent Brigham Hospital School of Nursing in 1926. For the next five years, she held various nursing positions at hospitals in Massachusetts.

In 1931, she received a bachelor of science degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, and was employed as director of nursing at Waterbury Hospital in Connecticut. While in this position, she held office on the board of directors of the Connecticut Nurses Association and was recommended for appointment to the Connecticut State Board of Examiners for Nursing in 1935. The following year, Ohlson became permanent secretary and chief examiner for the board and remained in that position until she retired in 1963. During that period, she earned a master of arts degree from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Ohlson joined the American Nurses Association early in her career and attended meetings where problems surrounding state testing for licensure were discussed. At that time, each state developed its own licensing examination, but prevailing inconsistencies in those examinations generated questions regarding their effectiveness. At issue also was concern about the difficulties underlying interstate mobility for nurses because of testing discrepancies. Troubled by disparities in the testing of candidates for registered nurse licensure in Connecticut and elsewhere, Ohlson requested the American Nurses Association to convene a meeting of state board representatives from across the country. That group eventually became a committee of the association which, together with a similar committee established by the National League of Nursing Education, worked to effect the first national qualifying examination for nurse licensure in the U.S. Between 1944 and 1950, the State Board Test Pool Examination gradually became the accepted testing model for all states. Ohlson played a vital role in forming the coalition and developing the examination.

Highly respected by national and international colleagues, Ohlson served organized nursing with distinction. Between 1950 and 1958, she held the office of secretary followed by the office of president of the American Nurses Association. In 1957, she was elected president of the International Council of Nurses. She also held various elected positions in Connecticut's professional nursing organizations. An eminent leader of the nursing profession, Ohlson received many honors during her lifetime. In 1980, she became the first recipient of the Agnes K. Ohlson Award for Outstanding Contributions to Nursing through Political Action, which was established in her honor by the Connecticut Nurses Association.

Born in Ohio on April 27, 1875, Mary D. Osborne graduated from the Akron City Hospital School of Nursing in 1902. Her early interest in the field of maternity nursing brought her to New York City, where in 1912, she became supervisor of nurses for a voluntary agency concerned with improving conditions for the poor.

Her simultaneous involvement with the American Red Cross of New York provided the impetus for her relocation to Mississippi in 1921 and her acceptance of a position as supervisor of the Division of Maternal and Child Health for the Mississippi State Board of Health. Soon after, Osborne was named supervisor of public health nurses for the same agency.

At that time, midwives delivered approximately 80% of the black babies born in Mississippi. Called "granny" midwives, most of the women were black, had little education, and played central roles in the provision of perinatal care in rural black communities. Critical of the midwives' lack of formal preparation, state officials enacted regulatory mechanisms through which standards were established and maintained. Under the direction of Osborne, a collaborative network of public health nurses and "granny" midwives was begun in which the nurses implemented training programs for the midwives, and the midwives in turn assisted the nurses in the delivery of improved maternal/infant services. In 1922, Osborne authored Manual for Midwives which contained guidelines for the appropriate provision of care, and which continued to be revised as recently as the 1970s.

During the 1930s, more than one hundred public health nurses were employed by the Mississippi Board of Health. In addition to teaching midwives, the nurses reinforced cleanliness, the need to prevent infection, and compliance with state regulations. Through Osborne's model partnership, "granny" midwives gained wider recognition and were empowered to provide health teaching in local areas, help control venereal disease, and disseminate information regarding the importance of pre- and post-natal care. Osborne's strategies have been credited with markedly reducing maternal and infant mortality rates in Mississippi, as well as in other states where her innovative ideas were adopted. In June 1946, Osborne resigned her position and died on July 7 of the same year.

Mary D. Osborne's devotion to the care of mothers and babies, and her profound regard for the needs of poor, predominantly black, rural communities, saved many lives in Mississippi. The healing alliance she created endured for more than fifty years and provided a vital link between the people and access to public health services.

A leader in the care of the mentally ill, Sara Elizabeth Parsons steadfastly worked for the advancement of psychiatric nursing throughout her career and established nurse training schools in hospitals and asylums during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She advocated autonomy for nurses and took part in professional activities at state and national levels.

Parsons was born in Northboro, Massachusetts, on April 24, 1864, and received her early education in the town of Oxford, Massachusetts. In 1884, she entered the Boston City Hospital Training School for Nurses, but returned home shortly thereafter to care for her dying mother. She remained at home for the following seven years to look after her two young siblings and entered the Boston Training School at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1891. Following graduation in 1893, Parsons held various positions in nursing, including head nurse, supervisor, and superintendent, and established a nurse training school in Rhode Island in 1896. During the Spanish-American War, Parsons volunteered for service on the "Bay State," a hospital ship used to evacuate sick and wounded military personnel from Cuba and Puerto Rico. After an eight-month trip abroad to recover from typhoid fever, she was employed as superintendent of nurses at Adams Nervine Hospital in Massachusetts, a position she held for three years. At this time, Parsons completed a one-year certificate course in hospital economics at Teachers College, Columbia University, and a six-month course in hospital administration at Massachusetts General Hospital. From 1910 to 1920, she occupied the position of superintendent of Massachusetts General, but took a two-year leave in 1917 to serve as chief nurse of Base Hospital #6 in France.

Parsons initiated considerable change for the student nurses at Massachusetts General Hospital. She implemented a probationary period, higher admission requirements, and a school library. Living conditions were improved and provisions were made for extra-curricular activities. A publication for the alumnae association was begun and plans for an endowment fund for the nursing school were introduced. Parsons served as president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association during this period and was a staunch supporter of the association's legislative goals with respect to licensure and registration for nurses.

A prolific writer, Parsons produced many articles for nursing journals. Her book, Nursing Problems and Obligations, was published in 1916. Her best known work, the History of the Massachusetts General Hospital Training School for Nurses, was published in 1922, and remains a valuable resource for historians. Actively involved in the struggle for full military rank for army nurses, Parsons presented her position in hearings conducted by the United States Senate. She retired in 1926, traveled extensively, and died on October 25, 1949. Sara E. Parsons is remembered as a vigorous opponent of the exploitation of student nurses and as a crusader for improvement in the care of mental illness.

Committed to strengthening the profession of nursing and the American Nurses Association as its professional organization, Elizabeth Kerr Porter was a leader in nursing education and an advocate for nurses' rights. She spoke out in support of economic security for nurses and defended their right to organize for the purpose of achieving that security.

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and an accomplished pianist, Porter's early career was as a teacher. Following the death of her husband, she chose to become a nurse, entered the Western Pennsylvania Hospital School of Nursing, and received her diploma in 1930. In 1935, she earned a bachelor of science degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, and the following year, a master of science degree from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1946, she fulfilled the requirements for a doctorate in education, also from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, where she coordinated the advanced clinical nursing program and achieved the rank of professor. Appointed to the faculty of the Francis Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University in 1949, she was professor and director of the graduate program in nursing and was named dean in 1953.

At the time of her appointment as dean, Porter was in her second term of office as president of the American Nurses Association, an organization of approximately 175,000 members. During her presidency, she played a pivotal role in: strengthening the association's economic security program; improving employment conditions for nurses; increasing nursing representation on national boards and commissions; eliminating racial restrictions to membership in the association; forming a National Student Nurses' Council; and consolidating the six existing national nursing organizations into two major associations.

In 1954, Porter was honored with a Pennsylvania Ambassadorial Award given in recognition of her achievements. In addition, she was the recipient of the Shirley Titus Award from the American Nurses Association, the Florence Nightingale Medal from the International Red Cross, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. She served as president of the Ohio Nurses Association form 1958 to 1960, vice president of the American Nurses Foundation, and board member of the National Health Council. An expert educational administrator, Porter's contributions and unparalleled leadership are legendary. She believed that nursing, through its professional organization, could be an instrument for change and reminded nurses in 1952 that, "the American Nurses Association can be only as strong as individuals are strong for collective action, and that strength must be fostered in district and state groups."

Widely known for her discovery of the science of unitary human beings, Martha E. Rogers provided a framework for continued study and research, and influenced the development of a variety of modalities, including therapeutic touch. Over a long and productive career, she demonstrated leadership skill and a futuristic vision that improved nursing education, practice, and research in the United States and internationally.

Born in Dallas, Texas, on May 12, 1914, Rogers was the eldest of four children of Bruce and Lucy M. Keener Rogers. After attending the University of Tennessee at Knoxville from 1931 to 1933, Rogers entered the Knoxville General Hospital School of Nursing, receiving her diploma in 1936, and earned a bachelor of science degree from George Peabody College, Nashville, in 1937. She was employed as a public health nurse in Michigan from 1937 to 1939, and as a member of the staff of the Hartford, Connecticut Visiting Nurses Association from 1940 to 1945.

After receiving a master of arts degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1945, she accepted the position of executive director of the Phoenix Visiting Nurse Association in Arizona, where she remained for six years. In 1952, she received a master's degree in public health and in 1954, a doctor of science degree, both from Johns Hopkins University. In 1954, Rogers was appointed professor of nursing and head of the Division of Nursing at New York University. Committed to baccalaureate education for nurses, Rogers opposed continued use of curricula based on a medical model and recommended that nursing faculty be prepared at the doctoral level.

Over the next twenty-one years, Rogers initiated curriculum revisions, theory based learning, and the establishment of a five-year bachelor of science degree program at New York University. During the same period, she developed the theory she identified as "a paradigm for nursing -- the science of unitary human beings," and conducted "philosophical and theoretical investigations of the nature and direction of unitary human development."

A proponent of rigorous scientific study, Rogers wrote three books that enriched the learning experience and influenced the direction of nursing research for countless students: Educational Revolution in Nursing (1961), Reveille in Nursing (1964), and An Introduction to the Theoretical Basis of Nursing (1970), the last of which introduced the four Rogerian Principles of Homeodynamics. Following her retirement in 1975, Rogers continued to teach at New York University, was a frequent presenter at scientific conferences throughout the world, and consistently worked to refine her conceptual system. Rogers was also actively involved in professional nursing organizations and associations concerned with education and scholarship. She was honored with numerous awards and citations for her sustained contributions to nursing and science.

A leader of vision, determination, and courage, Mabel Keaton Staupers helped break down color barriers in nursing at a time when segregation was entrenched in this country. Dedicated to improving the status of black nurses and promoting better health care for black Americans, she was instrumental in organizing the first private facility in Harlem, New York, where black physicians could treat their patients.

Staupers was born on February 27, 1890, in Barbados, West Indies. At age thirteen, she emigrated to the United States with her parents, Pauline and Thomas Doyle. In 1917, Staupers graduated with honors from Freedmen's Hospital School of Nursing in Washington, DC, and worked as a private duty nurse. From 1922 to 1934, she was employed first as a surveyor of health needs and later as executive secretary for the Harlem Tuberculosis Committee, a unit of the New York Tuberculosis and Health Association.

Early in her career, Staupers was confronted with the prejudice and dehumanizing discrimination affecting the lives of black Americans. In the profession of nursing, for example, training schools were largely segregated and major organizations, including the American Nurses Association and the National League of Nursing Education, denied membership to black nurses residing in selected states. Exposure to those conditions reinforced Staupers' resolve to initiate changes that would generate equal rights for black nurses, awaken the public to existing disparities, and gain improved access to equitable health care services for black citizens.

In 1934, Staupers accepted a position as the first paid executive secretary of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses. During her twelve-year tenure, Staupers increased membership, established a citizens advisory committee, built coalitions with other nursing and non-nursing groups, and effectively tore down the racial barriers that previously kept black nurses out of the military. In 1946, Staupers resigned her position but continued her struggle. Following admission of black nurses to full membership in the American Nurses Association in 1948, the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses was dissolved in 1949.

Honored with numerous awards, citations, and certificates, Staupers was one of the great heroines in nursing's history. Her book, No Time for Prejudice, recounts the many obstacles she overcame in her fight for equal recognition. Through the sustained efforts of Mabel Keaton Staupers, black nurses were accepted into the educational, institutional, and organizational structure of American nursing.

Pioneer of the hospice movement in the U.S., Florence S. Wald envisioned the need to maximize the quality of life for the terminally ill. Following a trip to England in the late 1960s to assess the care delivered at Saint Christopher's Hospice near London, Wald returned to this country and implemented a feasibility study to determine the need for a hospice in Connecticut. Since that time, her exemplary work with the dying has influenced the further development of hospice care throughout the nation.

Born Florence Sophie Schorske on April 19, 1917, in New York City, she was the younger of two children and attended school in Scarsdale, New York, where the family moved when she was a small child. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a bachelor of arts degree in 1938 and, in 1941, received a master's degree in nursing from Yale University School of Nursing. In 1959, she married Henry Wald whom she credits with being a constant, supportive force in her life. Florence Wald, passed away at her home in Connecticut on November 8, 2008 at the age of 91.

Wald began her nursing career as a staff nurse with the New York Visiting Nurse Service. Ensuing positions included six years as a research assistant in the Surgical Metabolism Unit of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and two years as an instructor at Rutgers University School of Nursing in New Jersey. In 1957, she was employed as assistant professor of psychiatric nursing at Yale University School of Nursing and in 1959 was appointed dean and associate professor, a position she retained for nine years. From 1969 to 1970, Wald continued at Yale as a research associate and from 1970 to 1980 served as clinical associate professor. At the same time, she was a member of the board and an integral part of the planning staff of Hospice Incorporated in Branford, Connecticut, the first hospice in the United States. Recognizing that the terminally ill have unique needs, Wald developed a hospice model that provides holistic and humanistic care for the dying person and requires appropriate understanding of the concepts of death and dying among nurses giving care in the hospice environment.

Wald’s most recent work included bringing the hospice model of compassion and dignity in death to the Connecticut Correctional Facilities. Since its implementation, over 150 inmate volunteers have been trained to be hospice volunteers within state correctional facilities. This model is now being translated to the state Veterans' Homes through a grant received at Yale School of Nursing by the Beatrice Renfield Foundation.

Florence Wald has published widely and earned many distinctions, including a Founders Award from the National Hospice Association, a Distinguished Woman of Connecticut Award from the governor of Connecticut, fellowship in the American Academy of Nursing, and three honorary doctoral degrees. Further, the Connecticut Nurses Association established the Florence S. Wald Award for Outstanding Contributions to Nursing Practice in her honor.

Renowned expert in the care of older adults and the nursing management of long term care, Mary Opal Wolanin influenced the inclusion of gerontological content in nursing curricula. Committed to ongoing research in the field of gerontology, she funds an annual research award and mentors American and foreign graduate students.

Mary Opal Browne was born in Chrisney, Indiana, on November 1, 1910, to Earl Edwin and Florence (Abbott) Browne, she spent the first year of her life in Saskatchewan, Canada, where she developed diphtheria, which eventually left her completely deaf in one ear. In 1931, she received a diploma in nursing from the Kansas City General Hospital School of Nursing in Missouri and completed a course in psychiatric nursing at Cook County Hospital, Illinois. From 1941 to 1943, she served as second lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps in World War II, and while in the service was married to second lieutenant, H.J. Tiger Wolanin. Between 1944 and 1951, Wolanin held positions in Mississippi, Louisiana, Ohio, Arizona, and Nebraska, which included experiences in obstetrical nursing and the care of native Americans with tuberculosis. After completing a bachelor of arts degree at the University of Arizona in 1954, Wolanin again accompanied her husband on his various military assignments. Returning to Arizona in 1958, the Wolanins settled in Tucson where they remained for the next twenty-nine years. In the early 1960s, Wolanin joined the faculty of the University of Arizona School of Nursing where she also completed a master's degree in 1963.

In 1968, Wolanin was given a joint appointment with the newly established Regional Medical Program and began her study of nursing homes and long term care needs in Arizona. Through her sustained efforts, a graduate program in gerontological nursing, one of the first of its kind in this country, was established at the University of Arizona.

A valuable resource for educational programs in nursing as well as nursing home administration, Wolanin provided thirty consultations on gerontological nursing and presented more than twenty-five scholarly papers in the U.S. and abroad. Author of numerous published articles, books, and book chapters, she is the recipient of a great many honors and awards, including the Lifetime Achievement in Nursing Award from the National Gerontological Nursing Association, and fellowship in the Gerontological Society of America. Retired in 1987 as associate professor emeritus, she now resides with her husband of 53 years in San Antonio, Texas. Active in nursing for more that sixty years, Wolanin continues to affect the lives of the aged and, according to colleagues, "remains a guiding light in gerontological nursing."