Development News
Anne R. Bavier, 73MN
A
Call to Arms
Thank goodness for
friends like Betty Daniels. Without her, our nursing students would have
one less ally to battle the high cost of tuition. Because so many students
are struggling financially, she has made a scholarship bequest to the
School of Nursing.
Times have changed since Betty and her classmates started nursing school
in 1948. “It was not expensive,” she recalls. “We only
paid for the first six months, and then our tuition was paid because we
worked in the hospitals.”
The nursing school obviously did something right. After graduating in
1951, Betty worked at Emory off and on throughout her nursing career and
earned a master’s degree in 1967. For 15 years, she taught mental
health to many a nursing student before retiring in 1995.
As a former student and faculty member, Betty is keenly aware of the challenges
facing our profession. “The nursing population is aging, and we need
to encourage as many people as we can to enter nursing,” she says.
“I did well by my Emory education, and I’d like for other students
to have the same opportunity.”
There’s an added bonus to an Emory education. Fifty years after graduating,
Betty remains close to several of her 1951 classmates. Last fall, her
class won the Spirit of Nursing Award and the Reunion Cup during Alumni
Weekend. Both awards honor their participation in the Annual Fund, which
supports nursing scholarships.
We hope that generous spirit will grow as we strive to reach our $100,000
Annual Fund goal this year. We can do it if our alumni each contribute
$100 or more. That’s easy to do if you feel the same as Betty.
“I love Emory. I love nursing,” she says. “And I’ve
made many wonderful friends.”
Anne R. Bavier, 73MN,
FAAN
Assistant Dean for Development,
Alumni, and External Relations
Kathleen and Ralph Holland see their scholarship bequest to the School of Nursing as a way to honor the memory of their two daughters and show their appreciation for the role Emory has played in the wonderful life they have shared together.
Straight
from the Heart
Couple’s bequest supports nursing scholarships
Ralph Holland, 47B,
believes in getting things done. Now in his early 80s, the retired Air
Force general and businessman is still making plans for the future. Holland
and his wife, Kathleen, have made a $300,000 bequest to provide need-based
scholarships for undergraduate and graduate nursing students. By creating
this endowment for the Holland Scholars, the couple is providing much-needed
scholarship support in honor of their daughters, Barbara and Jane. Both
passed away at a young age.
“I graduated from Emory, which gave me a head start in life,”
says Holland of their gift. “My wife and I wanted to do something
in memory of our girls. We don’t have other children, and Emory has
meant a lot of us.”
Prior to enrolling in business school at Emory, Holland attended West
Georgia College and joined the US Army Air Corps, where he flew combat
missions as a B-29 pilot during World War II. After graduating from Emory,
he joined the business world but was recalled to active duty during the
Korean War and remained with the Air Force for many years, serving at
bases in and outside the United States. Holland flew several combat missions
in the Korean and Vietnam wars and also was assigned to Vietnam as deputy
commander of the Seventh Air Force and to Hawaii as deputy chief of staff
for logistics of the Pacific Air Forces. He then was transferred to Georgia
as commander of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, where he retired
at the rank of major general in 1975.
Holland resumed his business career and eventually joined the Northrop
Corporation, which took him and his wife to Saudi Arabia in 1977. While
there, Holland became vice president and program manager for Project Peace
Hawk, which provided 124 F-5 fighter jets to that country and employed
more than 3,000 people. Later, as vice president for field support, Holland
traveled to various countries that bought the F-5. Although he retired
from Northrop in 1986, he continued as a consultant until 1998.
The Hollands’ lives still brim with activity in San Antonio. He has
served on the board of the USAA Bank and the Dominion Country Club, and
both take part in Air Force and community affairs. They also maintain
strong ties to Emory. In addition to their bequest to the nursing school,
they have included the Goizueta Business School in their will. This fall,
the university will honor Holland with an Emory Medal, the highest honor
for alumni.
Forever the general, Holland sums up the couple’s reason for supporting
Emory with simple military precision. “We have had a great life together.”
Fima
Lifshitz donated the painting “Field of Stars” to honor his
wife, Jere, whom he describes as “a star and proud Emory graduate.”
The painting hangs on the
first floor of the School of Nursing.
A Galaxy
of Color
Brazilian painting adorns nursing school
A colorful glimpse
of the universe now hangs on the first floor of the School of Nursing.
Fima Lifshitz, a pediatric endocrinologist, has donated “Field of
Stars,” a painting by Brazilian artist Leonardo Celuque, in honor
of his wife, Jere Ziffer Lifshitz, 76N.
“We were at the dedication of the new School of Nursing building
last year, and Fima thought that such a beautiful building should be adorned
by art,” says Jere, who lives in Miami. “We chose this from
our collection since we think it fits the setting. The painting style
is ‘scientific realism,’ and it very much appeals to us, especially
the spectacularly vivid galaxy of colors.”
The couple has collected quite a bit of Brazilian art because of Fima’s
work. “We often travel to Bahia, Brazil, where there is a pediatric
metabolic research center named for Fima,” says Jere. The World Health
Organization considers the unit as the top pediatric metabolic and clinical
nutrition research program. It is part of the hospital and medical school
at Federal University in Bahia. “We try to go there once or twice
a year, particularly to study diarrhea and malnu-trition and their devastating
effects on children in developing countries,” says Jere.
After graduating from nursing school, Jere began her own health career
as a staff nurse on 5B South at Emory University Hospital. She subsequently
held several positions there and was responsible for implementing interdepart-mental
nursing (floating) when it was a new concept. After spending some time
in pulmonary medicine and surgery, she helped start an interdisciplinary
team to provide nutritional support, an area she describes as her first
love.
After leaving Emory in 1982, Jere entered the fledgling field of home
infusion therapy and managed a company in that field for many years in
New York. She also completed a master’s degree in health care policy
and management at New York University. Afterward, she started her own
consulting company, known today as Prime Health, Inc.
“Currently, I specialize in medical education and marketing. I do
a lot of content development for health care websites and ghostwrite for
medical journals,” she explains.
Although she left Emory 20 years ago, Jere still feels connected to the
school that launched her health and business career. “I’ve always
been very fond of Emory,” she says. “I’m glad Fima and
I could make a contribution.”c