In memory

Merilys Porter Brown, BSN ’42
Helen Weyer Hartwich, BSN ’43
Renata Rolf Winsor, BSN ’43
Evelyn Kuenst Ewing BSN ’45
Marie Lann Hodgkinson, BSN ‘45
Mildred Niemi Jarnstrom, BSN ’45
Elaine Johnson Hanson, BSN ’46
June Collins Peller Moe, BSN ’46
Louise Probst Martineau, BSN ’46
Marie Renner Zdechlik, BSN ’46
Miriam Berdella McClellan, BSN ’46
Vivian Hanson Meehan, BSN ’47
Margaret Lauhala Shreffler, BSN ’48
Margaret Orth Judge, BSN ’50
Dolores Stephenson Carrier, BSN ’53
Dorothy Moe Fairbanks, BSN ’53
Marguerite Hessian-Gatz, BSN ‘54
Karen Schmidt Vorderstrasse, BSN ’59
Elaine Valdness Voss, BSN ’60
Barbara C. LaSalle Salter, BSN ’61
Ruth Schmalz VanLuven, BSN ’61
Mary Leonard Bassett, MSN ’62
Sandra Sidla Havrilla, BSN ’78
Jacquelyn Pankratz Olson, BSN ’78
Marilyn Weis Anfenson, MS ‘79
Boyd Larson, BSN ’83

Remembered

Capt. Merilys Porter Brown, BSN ’42, passed away Dec. 17, 2019, at the age of 101 years. Brown graduated from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor’s degree in nursing in 1942. After serving in the Army Nurse Corps as a Flight Nurse in WWII she returned to the University of Minnesota and completed her master’s degree in public health in 1949. From 1943-1946 she was a Flight Nurse with the 816th Medical Air Evacuation Squadron in the European Theater of Operations flying with Troop Carrier Squadrons of the 9th Army Air Corps. She evacuated wounded soldiers, including the first squadron in Normandy after D-Day and during the Battle of the Bulge. From 1951-1971 she was a commissioned officer in the United States Public Health Service. Her last assignment was with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Renata Rolf Winsor, BSN ’43, passed away Dec. 8, 2019, at the age of 98. She graduated from University of Minnesota where she earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing in 1943. She was a nurse supervisor at Minneapolis General Hospital and often spoke of her involvement in the care of patients in 1946 during the polio epidemic.

Dorothy Moe Fairbanks, BSN ’53, passed away Oct. 16, 2019, at the age of 89 years. Fairbanks was an assistant professor at the School of Nursing from 1966 to 2002. She received the Excellence in Nursing Education Award from the Nursing Alumni Society Board in 1987.

Barbara Vinson O’Grady, an influential public health leader and longtime supporter of the University of Minnesota School of Nursing and other University programs, passed away Feb. 8, 2020, at the age of 91 years. She demonstrated a commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of the broader Twin Cities community by ensuring top-quality education and collaboration among those in public health. In 1998, through a generous gift to the school, she created the Barbara O’Grady Excellence in Public Health Nursing Leadership Lecture, which supports public nursing lectures given through the School of Nursing. O’Grady served as the director of Ramsey County Public Health Nursing Service, served on the Board of Governors of the University of Minnesota Hospitals and was an assistant professor of Nursing at Gustavus Adolphus College.