We were saddened to learn of the death of Dr. Shirley Fondiller on May 24, 2018 at the age of 94. Dr. Fondiller was the first editor of The American Nurse newspaper, the official news periodical of the American Nurses Association.  Shirley was at the INANE inaugural gathering in New York City in 1982, as seen in the photograph of that gathering below.  In the photo, Shirley is standing to the far right. Although in the years to follow I did not have the good fortune to continue to work with her, I recall meeting her at that gathering and remember her as vivacious and outspoken – in a good way!  My memory is confirmed by a note in her obituary that she kept a plaque on her china cabinet that read “Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History.”  She was indeed widely recognized as an outspoken voice on women’s rights and the need for professionalism in nursing. She wrote numerous editorials and external commentaries calling for higher standards and more rigorous credentialing in nurse education. 

Shirley was also an historian; she earned her Certified Archivist credential from the National Archives and Records Service, and was dedicated to preserving little-known accounts of nursing’s past in journals and books.  Her books attest to her commitment to preserving the history of nursing, and to her passion for high standards in nursing writing:

• Go, and Do Thou Likewise: A History of Cornell University-New York Hospital School of Nursing, 1877-1979 (here);
• The Writer’s Workbook: Health Professionals’ Guide to Getting Published (1999) (here);
• Health Professionals Style Manual (2007) (here) with a foreword by Suzanne Smith;
• Nursing: The Career of a Lifetime (1995) (here), ;
• The Entry Dilemma: The National League for Nursing and the Higher Education Movement, 1952-1972, with an Epilogue to 1983 – digitized in 2008 (here).

We join many others in remembering our long-time colleague, and in paying tribute to her many important contributions to nursing and healthcare.

The photo below of the 1982 INANE gathering is also on the “Past conferences” page of this site.

1982 Conference Attendees

Seated, L to R: Unidentified, Elinor S. Schrader (Editor AORN), Thelma M. Schorr (editor, AJN), Rozella Schlotfeld, Dean Case Western University & guest speaker), Sue Hegyvary (Associate dean and Assistant V.P., RPSLMC, Chicago & introduced symposium).Standing, L to R: unidentified, Julie Stillman (Little Brown and Co.), Patricia (Tucker) Nornhold, Peggy Chinn (Editor ANS), Leah Curtin (Editor, Supervisor Nurse), Alison Miller (C.V. Mosby Co), Richard H. Lampert (Appleton-Century-Croft), Shirley H. Fondiller (assistant to the dean for special programs and projects, RPSLMC, and Program Coordinator for the first National Journalism Symposium, April 1981)

James Patrick Smith OBE, DLitt (Honoris Causa), FRCN

The world of publishing in academic nursing has lost one of its great pioneers. My great friend and mentor and an inspiration to many, James P Smith – always known as ‘Jim Smith’ – died peacefully aged 84 on 15 June 2018. Jim was the Founding Editor of the Journal of Advanced Nursing (JAN) and a significant influence on the development of scholarship in nursing in the 20th Century.

Born in 1934, Jim qualified as a nurse in 1955 and as a nurse tutor in 1961 gaining experience in clinical practice, nursing education, clinical management and senior nursing in England. He was the first male appointed to the nursing staff at St George’s Hospital, London. He gained a degree in Sociology in the late 1960s.

In 1973 he obtained a scholarship to visit the United Sates to see nursing education in action there. He realised that the UK lagged far behind. Nursing was taught in leading universities in the US. The teachers were scholars, conducting their own research and publishing in their own and other academic journals. They also complained about the length of time it took to get published. This planted the seed in Jim’s mind which, in 1976, became the JAN. The journal celebrated its 40th Anniversary in 2016 (Watson 2016).

One of Jim’s great talents was spotting talent in others. His standards were always the highest, but he was neither flattered by ‘big names’ nor ignored those trying to break into scholarly publishing. Jim liked good writing and never flinched from publishing what needed to be said. In practice Jim implemented many significant changes in the hospitals where he worked: the proper use of Clinical Nurse Specialists; the role of the Nursing Officer; enabling patients to die at home; and facilitating home births.

Jim chaired the Editorial Board meetings of JAN with flair. Firm, hilarious and tangential – but always gentle and at pains to help everyone contribute. All copy passed before Jim and always in hard copy. With a thick HB pencil Jim scored through, underlined, circled, made right-hand marginal comments and with thick arrows in the left-hand margin, indicated where a paragraph ought to go. He had an eye for what should come first and what should be deleted. He also had an eye for accuracy and completeness. A mention of someone by name had to be accompanied by their place of work, city and country; accuracy and completeness, always.

Jim stepped down from being Editor-in-Chief of JAN in 1999 and I had the honour to present him for the degree of Doctor of Letters Honoris Causa at the University of Hull in 2001. Jim came to the RCN International Research Conference in Edinburgh in 2016 where I interviewed him and recorded it. The quality of the recording was too poor to put out under the auspices of JAN, but a podcast is available. Jim’s funeral was held at St Mary’s Fochabers, UK on 21 June 2018. He is survived by John Forde, his partner of 54 years.

Roger Watson
Editor-in-Chief, JAN

Reference
Watson,  R. (2016). JAN 40 years on. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 72, 3-5.

We are sad to acknowledge the death of one of nursing’s great leaders – M. Louise Fitzpatrick, EdD, RN, FAAN.  Dr. Fitzpatrick was a prolific writer, mover and shaker. Her work lives on, and stands as a lasting influence on the discipline of nursing. We reached out to our INANE colleague Carol Weingarten, who is Associate Professor at Villanova University, where Dr. Fitzpatrick served as Dean for 40 years. Carol contributed this tribute to their beloved Dean:

M. Louise Fitzpatrick, EdD, RN, FAAN was Connelly Endowed Dean and Professor, as Dean of the College of Nursing for 40 years.  When she came in 1978 at 35 years old, she was the only person with a doctorate at the College of Nursing and the only female Dean at a university whose students were originally all male. She proved herself a leader, mentor, mother, advocate, and friend as she built the College of Nursing into a thriving NLN Center of Excellence with undergraduate through PhD and DNP programs, a Continuing Education program, on-line RN-BSN and BSN Express programs and Centers for Global Health and Obesity Education and Prevention.

She personified professionalism, and made professional involvement and professional development key aspects of nursing education.  She founded Villanova University’s chapter of the Student Nurses’ Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP-Villanova).  Her support helped develop the chapter into an NSNA designated Stellar School with students and advisor active from the local to national levels. She was honored by the state SNAP with its first Lifetime Achievement Award and by NSNA with the Leader of Leaders Award.   She was an excellent writer and nurse historian, as well as a terrific speaker who could connect with small groups or convention sessions of thousands. The power of her impact was recognized by an Honorary Degree from Villanova University in 2015.

Throughout her illness Dean Fitzpatrick remained connected with her friends, colleagues, faculty, alumni and students.  She died peacefully at home and as she lived, ever Dean of the College of Nursing and a champion for Nursing.  Now, in these days since her passing, we are surrounded by her in the College of Nursing and in the building that she made reality and feel the loss of an extraordinary person and leader.

A mass of Christian Burial was held on September 6,2017.  More information and a fitting tribute to Dr Fitzpatrick was published by Rev. Peter M. Donohue, OSA President, Villanova University, which is available here.

I have just learned of the death of our colleague, Kathleen Heinrich, on December 29, 2016. Kathleen died at home in Connecticut with her husband Chris at her side. She had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer in March, 2015.

A twice-tenured professor (University of San Diego, University of Hartford), Kathleen left academia in 2004 to establish her own business, KTH Consulting, with a mission “to prepare individuals, colleague-teams, and faculty groups to present, publish and peer mentor each other’s scholarly success.” Testimonials from colleagues who attended her workshops and seminars attest to her creativity, professional support, and collegiality. Kathy had a passion to change the culture of academia and help educators reach their full potential as scholars, teachers, and mentors.

Many reading this will be familiar with Kathy as the author of Dare to Share which was published in 2008 by Jones & Bartlett. With Marilyn Oermann, Kathy was a co-editor of the Annual Review of Nursing Education (Springer) for seven years. Kathy was a regular contributor to Nurse Author & Editor and a member of the Editorial Board of Nurse Educator. Her article, “Scholarly Joy-Stealing 10 Mean Games Educators Play and How to Imagine Something Different Together” was published in the January, 2017 issue of the journal (vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 1-2).

Kathy was a graduate of St. Anselm’s College (BSN, 1973), Boston University (MSN, 1976), and the University of Connecticut (PhD, Higher Education, 1988). She was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing in 2014.

On behalf of INANE, I send our deepest condolences and healing thoughts to Kathy’s family and friends.

With great sadness, we note that Dr. Rosanne Harrigan, MS, EdD, AORN-Rx, FAAN passed away on October 16, 2016. Our thoughts go out to her family, friends, colleagues and students. Dr. Rosanne Harrigan most recently served as the Chair of the Department of
Complementary and Integrative Medicine, University of Hawai’i School of Medicine. She was the former Dean of the University of Hawai’i Manoa School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene. She served on several nursing journal Editorial Boards, and authored books and journal articles in the area of Child and Maternal Health.

We were sorry to learn of the death last year of Nancy E. Kline, PhD, RN, CPNP, FAAN February 24, 1959-April 20, 2015. Thank you to Kristin Stegenga, current Editor of the Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing for letting us know.

The following is excerpted from her tribute published shortly after her death in the Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing:

“Nancy Kline was a nurse, scientist, editor, teacher, friend, wife, daughter, aunt, mom to her fur-kids, and tireless advocate for children with life-threatening diseases.  In the course of her life, she touched thousands and left an amazing professional legacy of advocacy, service, and mentorship that is personified in her books, articles, research, and embodied in each of us.

She became the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing in 1998, serving for 17 years.  Nancy loved being the editor of JOPON.  She was able to engage, encourage, develop and mentor many colleagues during her tenure.  As a researcher, she understood how critical it was to lay a scientific foundation for our practice in order to improve the lives of the children we serve.  She poured herself into ensuring our journal was an elite publication.  Under her leadership, the journal was elevated to an award-winning status and attained an Impact Factor for the first time. Throughout her illness, she continued the work she loved, and completed editing her last JOPON shortly before her death.” (p. 429)

Echtenkamp, D & O’Hanlon-Curry, J. (2015). Nancy E. Kline, PhD, RN, CPNP, FAAN, Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing, 32(6), 429-431.

It is with great sadness that I share the news of the death of Grayce Sills, a true nursing giant by any standard of measure. Grayce was a founding Editor, in 1995, of the Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (JAPNA) along with Nikki Polis.  She served in the capacity as Editor of the journal until 2005. Her dedication to nursing, to her friends and family, and to her many communities, was unrelenting. For everyone who knew her, or who simply heard her speak at one of many public appearances, Grayce left a lasting impression because of her humor, her sparkling blue eyes lit up with enthusiasm, and her unique ways of getting her messages across.

Grayce was born on April 18, 1926.  She decided to become a nurse after spending a summer at Rockland State Mental Hospital in New York, and graduated from Rockland State Hospital School of Nursing in 1950. She then attended Teachers College, Columbia University from 1950-51, before obtaining her bachelor’s degree from the University of Dayton, and a master’s and doctorate in sociology from The Ohio State University. Grayce assumed her faculty role at the Ohio State University School of Nursing in 1964 and remained of the faculty for the remainder of her academic career, retiring with Professor Emeritus status in 1993. While at OSU, she developed the graduate level clinical nurse specialist program in psychiatry; helped develop the doctoral program in nursing; was Director of the Advanced Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Program; Chair of the Department of Family and Community Nursing; Director of Graduate Studies; and, Acting Dean. She also helped the School of Nursing achieve independent status as a college within the university – an achievement of which she was particularly proud.

But retirement was only a transition for Grayce! Not only did she co-found the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (with Karen Babich, Judith Maurin, and Shirley Smoyak), she founded and Edited the Association’s journal and continued her prominent leadership role in the American Academy of Nursing as the organizer and leader of orientation activities for new Academy Fellows.  She was honored as a Living Legend by the Academy in 1999.  She continued her work as an international consultant for community-based mental health nursing, served as a visiting professor at Case Western Reserve University, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, and Fairfield University School of Nursing (Connecticut). A past chair of the OSU Hospitals Board of Trustees, she was instrumental in gaining board support for magnet hospital status, achieved in 2005. She has had the rare distinction of receiving three awards from OSU: a Distinguished Teaching Award, a Distinguished Service Award and an honorary doctorate in public service (2005), as well as honorary doctorates from Indiana University and Fairfield University in Connecticut.

L to R: Danny Willis, Grayce Sills, Sandra Talley, Linda Beeber, Teena McGuiness

Her most lasting influence, in my view, is the legacy of friendship and love that she offered freely to so many of us who knew her, whether as a friend or colleague on a regular basis, or in occasional encounters at professional events. I invited her close friend, Linda Beeber, to share a message of remembrance, which reflects so beautifully the experience of knowing Grayce in any capacity:

While she is associated with psychiatric nursing, Grace Sills set a high bar for the entire profession of nursing. She saw the power of nursing as enacting theory through practice intelligence, or the capacity to connect with people meaningfully in every encounter and transform the moment into one of mutual growth. Grayce embodied that connectivity in her ability to instantly read a room full of nurses and know exactly what to say and how to say it such that every nurse felt as if Grayce were talking to them.  Similar to the “infobite”, Grayce’s “Grayceisms” were compact, bits of practice theory that nurses could take to heart, elaborate and use to guide their practice. She touched so many nurses; at conferences, those of us privileged to transport her from place to place had to calculate extra time for her stop, talk, touch, laugh and extend a pearl of wisdom to the crowds of colleagues surrounding her. Moving Grayce was akin to moving a great dignitary. Grayce was engaged in the work of nursing up to the last days of her life, consulting with many of us, reminding us of the “bar” and how much further we need to travel to reach the dream that she believed professional nursing can be. Grayce left us with much work to do! In the midst of our deep sadness at not having her with us, imagine those twinkling blue eyes and impish smile lighting up with every act we do to make nursing the powerful profession that she envisioned.

I (Peggy) recall many times when I had the pleasure of spending time with Grayce. Always, she was intent on building connections, helping me and others develop professional relationships and build bridges to advance the best ideals of nursing.  I remember hearing her speak in New Orleans to a group of nurse practitioners, admonishing us to re-structure our language to create new and egalitarian relationships with our physician colleagues.  She recommended, for example, ending the use of the phrase “doctor’s orders” and replace it with “physician prescriptions.” Alongside those, she urged us to record “nurse prescriptions” to guide coordinated and comprehensive care.  When I was contemplating once again changing my academic affiliation, she observed that, “Some of us are ‘stayers’ (like I myself have been)” she said, “and some of us are ‘leavers’ – and both are just fine.”

One of my most memorable times with Grayce was when Charlene and I (as a fledgling publishing effort we named Margaretdaughters) photographed Grayce for our first “Everyday Sheroes” calendar.  We featured Grayce for the month of her birth – April, 1987.  The photo shown here is from the calendar, taken at the time of her service as Acting Dean of the OSU College of Nursing.

Grayce in 1987, at the time of her role as Acting Dean, College of Nursing, OSU

Here is the message she prepared for the calendar:

To create a viable future we must:
     – nurture and care for the rich differences among us
     – listen to one another
     – be open to the visions of the very young and the memories of the very old

Grayce, your spirit lives on, and may we honor you as we continue your legacy of creataing this kind of future.

We are saddened by the news that Elizabeth Tornquist, writing consultant, died on January 30, 2016.  There is probably not a single nursing journal editor who has not felt Elizabeth’s influence, even if we have not been aware of it!   She devoted her life to assisting nurses and other healthcare professional to achieve publication.  Her book “From Proposal to Publication: An Informal Guide to Writing About Nursing Research” has been widely used, not only in her own popular workshops and classes, but by many who never met her personally. 

Elizabeth was born in Wilson, North Carolina on January 14, 1933.  She graduated from Duke University in 1954, and made her permanent home in Durham. I recall not long ago meeting her at a small dinner party, and sensed immediately her infectious sense of humor and her contagious enthusiasm for her work with nurses.  The Obituary in the News & Observer profiles her life perfectly:

Elizabeth was a renaissance woman – newspaper writer, grant writer, editor, small business owner and consultant. All the while being a single parent and, later, a totally hands-on grandmother. Elizabeth loved to read, she loved her friends and family. SHE LOVED.

In 2007 Elizabeth was awarded the GE Healthcare-AACN Pioneering Spirit Award.  In their presentation of this award, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses acknowledged the significance of her work in supporting nurses in publishing their insights and knowledge as an editor in residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing.  She helped to found the School’s Research Support Center, which resulted in a growth in the School’s research funding from $22,000 in 1985 to over $8 million in 2006.

Indeed, the spirit, essence and work of Elizabeth Tornquist has left a lasting influence.  We extend our deepest sympathy to all of her family, friends, and colleagues who knew her, and share our appreciation for her life well-lived and for her contributions to nursing and nursing literature.