IN MEMORIAM Miss Kate Ireland, a lifelong philanthropist and a guiding force of the Frontier Nursing Service, passed away on Feb. 15, 2011, at her home in northern Florida. Miss Ireland devoted her life to public service, and her wide-reaching legacy includes her work on behalf of the Frontier Nursing Service and the school. Miss Ireland served as a courier during the summers of 1951-1954 and as a part-time courier from 1959-1960. In her role as a courier, Miss Ireland looked after the horses and jeeps used by the FNS nurse-midwives. She also tended to milk cows and pigs kept by FNS and packed supplies for the nurses for their rounds. Mrs. Breckinridge recognized Miss Ireland as a leader, and many people looked to her to get things done. She volunteered as Director of Volunteers for FNS from 1961-1975. For nearly six decades, Miss Ireland lent her expertise, advice, hard work and financial support to help FNS provide healthcare in Leslie County and educate nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners across the globe.
›› BE YOND THE FRONITER › FALL 2011
Albert T Ernst Sr., of Perkiomenville, PA, beloved husband of Kitty Ernst (FNU’s Mary Breckinridge Chair of Midwifery), died on Feb. 2, 2011. Among his many achievements, Mr. Ernst contributed to the promotion and development of the pilot Community-based Nursemidwifery Education Program (CNEP) at Frontier. This distance learning program was launched in Perkiomenville.
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Frontier alumna and former staff member Ruth Ermine Rabenhorst, who was born in Watertown, WI, on Sept. 13, 1934, passed away on Aug. 14, 2010. She graduated from Frontier in 1966 as a certified nurse-midwife. Mrs. Rabenhorst spent 10 years as a North American medical missionary in Cameroon, West Africa. She also worked as a staff nurse-midwife at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis for more than 20 years. A friend remembered her this way on the Minneapolis StarTribune’s web site: “As an RN working with the midwives of Hennepin County Medical Center, I had the privilege of working beside Ruth. She was a patient and loving teacher. She taught me to be calm and peaceful during the birth process. She had angel hands and skills ...” Elizabeth “Betty” Prata, CFNP Class 60, passed away on April 1, 2011, in Las Vegas. Betty returned to school in her late 50s to become a family nurse practitioner through
Frontier. She traveled to Guatemala for a month in the fall of 2009 as part of Frontier’s international health initiative. She was fluent in Spanish and during her life volunteered in the Honduran Peace Corps, worked with and taught life skills to women and children at the Cathedral Spanish Center in Boston, and served as a nurse and teacher in various cities and countries. Elizabeth Caryl “Beth” Walton, passed away on July 3, 2011, at Rose Villa Retirement Community in Milwaukie, Oregon. She was 93. Desiring to be a missionary nurse, Miss Walton spent six months training at Frontier after completing nursing school in Chicago. Many times she referred to those short six months as a student at Frontier as perhaps the most valuable for her entry into India. Miss Walton served under Conservative Baptist Foreign Missionary Society (currently World Venture) as a missionary nurse and administrator at Kothara Leprosy Hospital in Maharashtra, India, and other mission compounds close by from 1946-1983. It was with the help of this hospital staff and in coordination with the Indian government that leprosy became controlled in India. She received numerous awards in India and the U.S. for her mission work. Lynne Maureen Davis, CNEP Class 51, passed away on Aug.11, 2011, at her residence in Estero, Florida.She was 56. Mrs. Davis was a certified nurse-midwife and taught OB at Edison State College until shortly before her passing. Jewell Olson, Class of 1961, passed away on Aug. 8, 2011, in Columbus, Nebraska. She was 89. Miss Olson was a medical missionary for more than 30 years in the Belgian Congo. Between 1961 and 1962, she worked at a hospital in Uganda, near the border, after having fled the Rebels in the Congo. She returned to the United States in 1983. Helen Traschel Potter, Class of 1961, passed away on May 24, 2011. She was 74 and was a resident of Wauchula, Florida. She was born to missionary parents in China, and she served as a missionary in Bolivia with her husband, Harry. Mrs. Potter was the mother of four and later worked as a nurse with the Hardee County Health Department.