May 25, 2024

Honoring a Legacy, Promoting Our History

written by: Erik Williams

As the founding director of the Eleanor Crowder Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry, professor emerita Barbara Brodie was not only

instrumental in the Center’s creation, she was also at the core of a broad, international movement to preserve nursing history. That movement has led to remarkable work and efforts across the United States and beyond, with the Bjoring Center now at its forefront.

Brodie, along with Arlene Keeling (BSN ’74, MSN ’87, PhD ’92) and Sylvia Rinker (PhD ’95), who helped establish the Center in 1991, knew that private philanthropic support would be critical to its success. Described as an “accidental, yet gifted fundraiser,” Brodie worked to secure the endowment that named the Center in 2012, making it one of three such places of its kind in the country. Even with this commitment, though, Brodie knew more would be needed. She also knew that faculty would be at the core of the Center’s future.

“The Center is now an acknowledged leader in nursing history,” Brodie said in an early 2010s presentation. “To assure this position, it needs an academic leader who carries the rank of an endowed professorship in nursing history—a rank that bestows honor and prestige on its occupant and on his or her academic scholarship.”

This position will ensure the Bjoring Center continues to thrive in an ever-evolving educational landscape while creating the first named professorship exclusively focused on nursing history in the country.

-

An archival photo of Barbara Brodie teaching. — Brodie arrived at UVA from Chicago, intending to stay only four years. She ultimately taught for 32 years, and, by the time she retired, had been connected to UVA for more than 50 years.

0/6

Friends of Brodie Zoom together in 2020 — Friends of Brodie gathers on Zoom together in 2020.

1/6

Barbara Brodie being honored by Loyola University, her alma mater, in 1992. — In 1992, she earned an honorary degree from her alma mater, Loyola University...

2/6

Barbara Brodie, professor emerita, signing a copy of Mr. Jefferson's Nurses in 2000. — ... and in 2001, for the School of Nursing's centennial, she penned MR JEFFERSON'S NURSES, which remains a definitive history of the School.

3/6

Arlene Keeling, Mary Gibson, Barbara Brodie in the Bjoring Center in 2013. — A gift, if accidental fundraiser, Brodie remained connected to the Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry with colleagues including Arlene Keeling (left) and Mary Gibson (right).

4/6

Barbara Brodie in 2015 — Brodie died in 2023, and her legacy lives on in the minds and hearts of her former students and colleagues and the nation's first professorship solely devoted to the study of nursing history.

5/6

To bring about this vision and honor Brodie’s legacy, a group of committed alumnae gathered with their former professor in 2015 and began plans to endow the Barbara M. Brodie Professorship in Nursing History. This fund, once fully endowed, will support an endowed professor in nursing history at the School into perpetuity. Along with the Center’s endowment, this position will ensure the Bjoring Center continues to thrive in an ever-evolving educational landscape while creating the first named professorship exclusively focused on nursing history in the country.

With Brodie’s death in February 2023, the School of Nursing and the Bjoring Center are moving to complete the endowment of this critically important position by June 30, 2025. With more than $1 million in gifts so far, another $1 million is needed to complete the professorship. Once fully endowed, the Brodie Professor will be formally established and awarded to a faculty member in School as dedicated to preserving nursing history at UVA and beyond as Brodie was herself.

###

Erik Williams is the School of Nursing's executive director of development. For more information about supporting the Brodie Professorship in Nursing History, contact Williams directly: erik.williams@virginia.edu or (434) 282-8491.