Categories: G-H

Gemeroy (nee McCauley), Helen May (1912-1997)

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

Helen Gemeroy was a leader in developing and expanding the specialty of psychiatric nursing for registered nurses in Canada.  After six years of teaching she took general and psychiatric nursing at Ponoka, Alberta.  She went on to further education at the Toronto Psychiatric Hospital, McGill University and Sir George Williams, with a Masters’ of Arts from Columbia.

After administrative positions at institutions including the Allen Memorial Institute in Montreal and the Provincial Hospital in Dartmouth, she joined the nursing faculty at McGill in 1954.  She moved to Vancouver in 1968 to become Assistant Director of the UBC Health Sciences Center Hospital, where she worked to provide exemplary psychiatric care in an academic environment supportive of the educational needs of students.   She received World Health Organization Fellowship Awards in 1966, and completed two WHO consultation contracts in 1967-1968.  She was promoted to a professorship at UBC in June 1976.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Additional notes on Helen Gemeroy.
2. Helen Gemeroy, The Canadian Nurse, February 1975, p. 36.
3. Material in support of Gemeroy’s nomination to the RNABC Memorial Book
4. Photograph
5. UBC Curriculum Vitae, with six letters supporting Gemeroy’s appointment as Associate Professor and tenure.

Gormick, Janet (1940-2006)

Janet was a long time member of the HoN group, serving on the Biographical and Archives Committees, and a strong advocate for a permanent archival home.  Janet first studied and nursed in pediatrics at St. Joseph’s School of Nursing in Syracuse, NY.  She opened the first psychiatric daycare unit in North America at this hospital, where she served as Head Nurse and Supervisor.

She completed a Masters’ of Nursing at UCLA in 1971 as a Psychiatric Clinical Nurse Specialist, and was invited by Dr. Muriel Uprichard to teach at UBC where she remained for 26 years.  Here she was involved in the development of a model for nursing, theory development and curriculum building, as well as clinical practice in psychiatry.  She was a member of the planning group for the Bladder Care Centre and Regional Programs for the Vancouver Coast Health Region.  The Janet Gormick Memorial Scholarship at UBC has been established.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Remembering Janet Gormick
2. Obituary:  Newspaper clipping and typed copy
3. Biographical information copied from “Amazing Alumni” UBC web site.
4. Photograph and funeral program “In Celebration of the Life of Janet Gormick.”
5. Two colour photographs

Graham, Eleanor Scott (1914- 1978)

After her graduation from UBC and the Vancouver School of Nursing in 1936, Eleanor worked in various locations in BC, establishing the first public health service in Powell River.  In 1945 she obtained a Masters’ of Science in Supervision and Administration from the University of Chicago.

Following her Masters Degree she became second assistant to the Victorian Order of Nurses in Canada, and a nursing instructor at the Metropolitan School of Nursing in Windsor.  She returned to BC to become Director of Nursing at the Royal Columbia Hospital from 1949 to 1953.

From 1953 to 1958 she was regional nursing advisor for WHO in Southeast Asia.  After her retirement she accepted a commission from WHO in the Maldives.  She was also executive director of RNABC from 1960 to 1970. And in this capacity, visited chapters, hospitals and public health centres throughout the province. She supervised construction of a new  RNABC building on 12^th Avenue in the  -1970s, – and saw a growth in membership from 7,700-13,000.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical Information Profile with two photocopied photographs.
2. Additional notes on Eleanor Graham.
3. Letter and CV
4. Materials in support of nomination to the CNA Memorial Book.
5. Materials in support of nomination to the RNABC Memorial Book.
6.  “Interesting People”, The Canadian Nurse (January 1946), p. 45.
7. “Nursing Profiles,” The Canadian Nurse, 44 (8), (1948), 650.
8.  “Profile,” RNABC News (1970), pp. 5-6.
9. Photograph and slide, photocopied photograph.
10. “In Memoriam”, RNABC News, 10, No.3, April-May 1978, p. 13.

Grasset (nee Haimov), Stephany (1931-   )

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

Born in Bulgaria, Stephany studied philosophy and history at the Sorbonne in 1949.  She immigrated to the US, and from there to Canada in 1961.  She graduated with a BSc from Louisiana State University in 1953, and from UBC in Public Health Nursing in 1968.  Her many positions have included adolescent counselling, instructor in nursing, and district nurse for the VON.  She has also been a nurse practitioner and Public Health nurse.  She regards her internship in the Palliative Care Hospice at Victoria General Hospital in Montreal as a highlight in her career.

In the latter part of her career, especially, she was involved in work, research and teaching in the psychiatric field, especially at UBC and BCIT.  From 1977-1985 she instructed in the Psychiatric Nursing program at BCIT, during which time she also lectured in UBC’s SON and other institutions.  In 1985-1986 she consulted in Psychiatric and Geriatric Nursing for the WHO in Barbados.  From 1989 she instructed in Acute Psychiatric Nursing in BCIT’s RN diploma program.  She was also President of RNABC in 1980-1981.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical Information Profile
2. Curriculum Vitae
3. Photocopied photographs, with identification.
4. Bateson, Helen, “She Tries a Little Tenderness,” Vancouver Province, January 18, 1973.
5. “Visiting Nursing Coordinator Practicing Expanded RN Role,” The Canadian Nurse, Dec. 1972/Jan. 1973.
6.  “Nursing Where the People Are,” The Canadian Nurse, Jun 1974, pp. 17-19.
7. Excerpts from The Canadian Nurse, including four articles by Grasset in The Canadian Nurse 1980-1981 as President of RNABC,
8. Bateson, Helen, “Guardian Nurse,” Vancouver Province, June 7, 1975, p. 45.
9. Photographs

Gray, Mabel (1880-1976)

See Mabel Gray fonds in the UBC Archives

Mabel Gray was born near Brampton and taught school before entering nursing.  She enrolled at the Training School for Nurses of the Winnipeg General Hospital in 1902, remaining on staff after graduation.   In 1914 she became superintendent and principal of the School of Nursing at Winnipeg General Hospital.

Mabel went on to become Assistant Professor and Head of Nursing at UBC from 1925-1941.  With Margaret Kerr she enabled the school to survive during the Depression; for several years the two of them carried the entire teaching load.  She was also active in professional organizations, serving as president of the CNA for one year, and of the RNABC from 1933 to 1939.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Materials in support of her nomination to the CNA Memorial Book, with photocopied photograph.
2. Street, M.  “The Mabel F. Gray Papers in The Library of the University of British Columbia”, Special Collections Division, 1977.
3. Gray, Mabel F.  “The Place of the Public Health Nurse in Epidemiology,” The   Canadian Nurse 23 (12), 641-648.
4. Gray, Mabel F.  “Department of Nursing and Health:  The University of British Columbia.”  Methods and Problems of Medical Education.  Twenty-First Series.  New York:  the Rockefeller Foundation, 1932.
5. “Miss Gray Retires,” The Canadian Nurse 37 (11), (1941), 755-756.
6. Five letters between Beatrice Fines seeking, on behalf of the Manitoba Association of
   • Registered Nurses to write its history, and Margaret Street, Sheila Stanton and Muriel
   • Uprichard of the School of Nursing, 1976.  An obituary notice from The Western News, August 16, 1976, is attached.
7. Paulson, Esther, “Recollections of Mabel Gray”, February 3, 1993.
8. B&w photograph

Green, (nee Frith) Monica (1917-2004)

See Oral History files, Fonds 18, Series 3, Subseries 8
See Pages of History, Fonds 18,Series 3, Subseries 9, File 2

Known for her contributions in the field of Public Health, Monica Green followed her RN from Vancouver General Hospital in 1939 with a BASc(N) in Public Health Nursing from UBC in 1940.  In 1945 she received her Masters’ in Public Health from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor on a Commonwealth Fund of New York scholarship.  She was Director of the Public Health Nursing Division for BC’s Provincial Health Dept. from 1948-1976, introducing one of the first post-hospitalization programs in Canada.

Her active involvement in professional and community organizations includes serving on the RNABC Education Committee and on the editorial board of the Canadian Public Health Association.  Being appointed Honorary Vice-President of the American Public Health Association was, she states, a highlight of her career.  Following her retirement she wrote Through the Years with Public Health Nursing:  A History of Public Health Nursing in the Provincial Government Jurisdiction of British Columbia.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical Information Profile and signed release form.
2. Curriculum Vitae
3. Biography from “1940’s Amazing Alumni Stories” on Internet
4. “Nursing Profiles”, The Canadian Nurse (1948), 44 (12), 1002.
5. “Interesting People,” The Canadian Nurse (1945), 41 (3), 208-209.
6. CPHA Honorary Life Membership, Canadian Public Health Association Health Digest, August 1977. 1, (4), p. 25.
7. Covering letter to Ethel Warbinek, April 18, 1993.
8. Photograph, original and photocopy (1968)

Grice (nee Hanson), Helen T. (1923-May 5, 2007)

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

Helen Grice received her RN from Toronto East General Hospital in 1944, a gold medalist in her class.  She worked in various hospitals in Ontario before coming to Vancouver in 1959.  She was assistant registrar and registrar for RNABC from 1963 to 1986.  She states that while she is impressed with the knowledge that RNs must now have, they command less respect because of their casual attire.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical Information Profile and signed release form
2. Brief biography
3. “Registrar Completes 20 Years at RNABC, Newsline, RNABC News, October 1983, p. 17. + B&W photograph

Griffith (nee Adam), Jean Kirstine (1922-2014)

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

Jean Griffith was awarded the Agnew Gold Medal in Obstetrical Nursing when she graduated from the Vancouver General Hospital in 1944 and in 1945 received a BASc(N) from UBC.  She married and worked as a Public Health Nurse in Saanich from 1945 to 1947.  She moved back t6o Vancouver, raised a family, and assisted her forestry professor husband, who had lost his sight from complications related to Diabetes.  He died in 1956 and she returned to nursing at VGH School of Nursing as the Student Health Clinic Nurses and later as an instructor teaching gynecology, public health, pediatrics and psychology until her retirement in 1982.

She remained busy in retirement and in 1966 wrote The Religious Aspects of Nursing Care, which assists nurses in providing culturally safe care to those of different religious faiths.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical Information Profile
2. Biographical notes
3. Biography from “1940’s Amazing Alumni Stories” on Internet
4. “Experience as UBC Nursing Student, 1940-1945”.  Transcript of an oral interview, March 10, 1993.
5. Buckland (Griffith), Kirstine.  “Nursing of Children:  An Outline of a Pediatric Program.”  The Canadian Nurse, 61 (2), (1965), 109-110.
6. “Bateson, Helen, “Capping 75 Years”, Vancouver Province, May 11, 1974.
7. Griffith, Kirstine, “Family Tales” in The Lunch Club Lives, an unpublished document produced in The International Year of Older Persons (1999) by the West Point Grey United Church, 4595 West 8th Ave., Vancouver, B.C., V6R 2A4.
8. “Ask, Listen and Learn”, Touchpoints, UBC School of Nursing, January 2007, p. 8.
9. “In Honour of Jean Kirstine Griffith”
10. 1 CD “Don’s story”, Sept. 2005.  Describes Griffith family history, with reference to Kirstine Griffith.
11. Two biographies by Ethel Warbinek
12. Invitations to Memorial Service and funeral program
13. Photographs

Hagen, Kaye (Katie) (nee Friesen)
(1936-

Kaye’s desire for an education was hindered but not halted by her mother becoming terminally ill with cancer when Kaye was fourteen.  She entered the Galt School of Nursing in 1955, and registered as an RN in June 1959.  She recalls from her training in Ponoka Psychiatric Institution that gay men were institutionalized, as same sex preference was at this time considered a mental illness. She nursed at Wrinch Memorial Hospital in Hazelton and Mills Memorial Hospital in Terrace before taking time to raise a family.

She returned to work in the OR at Mills Memorial from 1972 to 1977.  From 1981 to 1992 she worked for her husband who owned George Hagen Welding & Repairs Ltd., and did various nursing work, mostly in relief.  Much of her later life was spent caring for her husband, who contracted Parkinson and Lewy Body Disease.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical Information Profile.
2. Additional notes by interviewer Carol Harrison
3. Two photographs

Hackett, Minnie (1998-1976)

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

Minnie Hackett went to Aklavik in 1926, where she established an eight-bed hospital, funded by the Leonard Foundation.  Later she nursed at Hay River, helping treat the 1928 flu epidemic.  In 1930 she joined the Indian Affairs Department at the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario where she did community/public health nursing.  She took a diploma in Public Health in 1936, where she nursed until going to the Yukon in the early 1940s during the building of the Alaska Highway.  She then went to Vancouver, where her father was ill, taking a job at the Willow Chest Unit (TB) in Vancouver.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Transcribed notes of oral history, January 8, 1992.
2. Notes related to transcription.
3. Oral history summary notes.
4. Information from Stringer collection in the Anglican Church of Canada General Synod Archives fonds.