Kergin, Dorothy Jean (1928-1989)

See Oral History files, Fonds 18, Series 3, Subseries 8

See Pages of History, Fonds 18, Series 3, Subseries 9, File 2

A well-known educator with a varied career, Dorothy Kergin graduated from the VGH School of Nursing in 1951 and with a BSN from UBC in 1952. She became a public health nurse with the BC government from  1952 – 1963.   She received both her MPH and PhD from Ann Arbor Michigan.  She was Associate Dean of Health Sciences at McMaster University from 1970-1979, and Director of the School of Nursing at the University of Victoria from 1980-1988. During her tenure there, distance education programs for registered nurses expanded using the newly established Knowledge Network.

Dr. Kergin showed leadership in developing the following:  joint appointments between nursing faculty and heath care agencies; the nurse practitioner program; and a collaborative arrangement between the university and the Aga Khan foundation for the establishment of a school of nursing in Pakistan.  She received the RNABC Award of Merit in 1986, the Jeanne Mance Award, and the Ethel johns Award.

Contents of Biographical File

  1. Oral history contact form
  2. Curriculum Vitae, July 11, 1988
  3. Letters from Mary Nicol, dated January 28, 1988 and 25 August 1988.
  4. “News”, The Canadian Nurse (September 1972), p. 7.
  5. “Nurse Practitioners-the National Picture”, The Canadian Nurse, April 1978, pp. 13-18.
  6. Candidate for Member at Large, Nursing Education, The Canadian Nurse (1982), p. 6.
  7. Award of Merit: Dorothy Jean Kergin, Victoria, RNABC Member Recognition Awards (1986).
  8. RNABC Awards, RNABC News, May-June 1986, Cover and pp. 14-16.
  9. “UVic Director Honoured by RNABC,” May 16, 1986, RNABC.
  10. Mary Richmond, Biographical notes
  11. Obituary
  12. Brochure for the Dorothy J. Kergin Endowment Fund
  13. Citation for posthumous award, with attachments