Categories: A-D

Duncan Jensen, Margaret Willard (1921-1999)

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

Born in Revelstoke, Margaret graduated from VGH in 1946 and the next year received BA and BScN degrees from UBC.  She served on the UBC faculty from 1950-1963, and received a Kellogg Foundation Fellowship to attend the University of Chicago.  She attended the University of Berkeley for her doctoral studies, and from 1964 to 1983 taught at San Jose State University.

Her extensive publications on maternity and family nursing include Maternity Care for Nurse and Family, which won eight book of the year awards from the American Journal of Nursing, and was used in nursing schools throughout the world.  In 1978 she was the first UBC graduate to give the Marion Woodward Lecture at UBC.  She was named “Nurse of the Year” by March of Dimes in 1978-1979.  In 2000 a Scholarship fund was established in her name at UBC.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Curriculum Vitae
2. Two e-mails, 2000.
3. Supporting biography for nomination for the RNABC Memorial Book prepared by Beth Fitzpatrick.
4. “Nursing Perspective Seen for the ‘Expanding Family’”, RNABC News (1978) 10 (6), p. 10.
5. Two photocopied colour photographs.

Born in England, Nancy came to Canada in 1909.  She graduated from the Hamilton City Hospital in 1909 and worked in Ottawa during a typhoid epidemic that year.  She enlisted during WW I, serving in various locations for the Queen Alexandria Nursing Service.

After graduating from the Public Health program at UBC, Dunn became the first Public Health nurse in the Peace River country.  Here she travelled by horseback in summer and cutter in winter to provide medical care.  In 1934 she was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her outstanding contribution to nursing services.  Later she worked in Fort Nelson and Telegraph Creek, where dog teams were often her mode of transportation.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Gerald Clare, “Nancy Dunn, O.B.E., Pioneer in Peace River Public Health,” 2001.
2. Excerpt from “A First-Hand Look at Public Health in the Peace, 1932”, by Nancy Dunn, originally published in the Public Health Nurse’s Bulletin.
3. Mrs. C. Hind, Nancy Dunn, first Public Health Nurse in the District”.  Includes poem by Jean Gething, “Our School Nurse—Miss Dunn”.
4. B&w photocopied photograph

Dwyer (nee Smith), Rachel Margaret (1918- 2015)

Rachel Dwyer graduated in nursing from St. Eugene’s Mission in Cranbrook in 1941.  She married three months after her graduation, but apart from a year in the Claresholm Hospital while her husband was doing army duty overseas, did not work actively as a nurse.  She tutored a number of students.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical Information Profile
2. Obituary
3. Photograph

Albee (nee Brownlee) Beryl K. (1921-2012)

Beryl Albee was born and raised in Edmonton, graduating in nursing from the Vancouver General Hospital in 1944.  She was an active volunteer in her Nanaimo community, serving for two years as president of each of the Chemainus chapter of RNABC and the Nanaimo chapter.  She became Governor of the Nanaimo Regional Hospital Board and a member of the Building Committee for a new hospital.  She was also Chair of the Health Division for the National Council of Women.

She served from 1972 to 1987 on the Board of Malaspina College, and ten years on the BC Association of Colleges.  She was the first administrator and Director of Care for the long term care facility Kiwanis Lodge.  Malaspina University College awarded her an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree by in May 2000.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical Information Profile with signed release
2. Biographical information with photograph
3. Albee –page from “Pages of History”
4. Ten photographs with Albee holding Honorary Doctor of Laws certificate received from Malaspina University College in Nanaimo in 2000.

Adamson, (nee Stewart) Grace “Torchy” (1927-1992)

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

Nicknamed “Torchy” because of her red hair and outgoing personality, Grace Adamson graduated from Vancouver General Hospital School of Nursing in 1950 and received her BSN from UBC in 1951.   She taught at Vancouver General Hospital and worked as a VON in Vancouver’s downtown east side in the 1950s.  After her marriage she left active nursing, but worked as editor and then co-editor of the VGH Alumnae newsletter from 1952 to 1992.

Her daughter remembers that her mother taught her “to care in ways that advocate for social justice, change, and transformation.”  After her death the Grace Torchy Stewart Adamson Memorial Scholarship was established to honour her dedication to nursing education.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biography by her daughter, Janet Adamson
2. One photograph (1950)