donna david retires
DONNA DAVID RETIRES AFTER 42 YEARS ON THE HILL: “The Tears in My Eyes Say It All” By Bill Mahoney
Donna David has always been so much more than a school nurse since she arrived at Belmont Hill 42 years ago. When she first learned of the opening, she wasn’t certain that being a school nurse was what she wanted. But that would change. “I just grew to love everything about the School,” she says emphatically. And, for the many years she has graced our campus, the Belmont Hill community has returned that love to her. Mrs. David recalls growing up reading Sue Barton stories about nursing and says her interest in a nursing career began at a very young age, even though no one in her family had any medical background. “I just grew up knowing that’s what I wanted to do,” she recalls. “There wasn’t a light switch that came on—that passion was always there.”
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winter–spring 2022
Growing up, her family moved around quite a bit to accommodate her father’s work, but she primarily resided in the Midwest. She attended a three-year nursing school in Indiana, where she met Norman David, a minister-in-training, whom she would marry. She would go on to attend St. Louis University, while her husband was in the seminary there. Eventually, they moved to California, where she attended UCLA for her graduate degree. Years later, when her husband was assigned to a new church in Belmont, they made their move. Mrs. David was told of a nursing position opening at Belmont Hill, but had little interest. “I thought I would never be a school nurse because my idea of a school nurse was that it’s regimented to lots of paperwork and not much
