Those fashionable nurses

A Mount student in the complete nursing ensemble leads
the Class of 1955 from their Capping Ceremony in Mary Chapel.

Bicycling midwives in their smart
East End nursing uniforms.

FANS OF THE BRITISH SERIES Call the Midwife love the nurses' immaculate light-blue uniforms with maroon caps, matching sweaters, and a jaunty a secret-agent-style gray trench coat.

That era, the late 1950s and early 1960s, must have been the Golden Age of nursing fashion, because Mount students in the same decade had their own unique outfits – a crisp grey shirtwaist dress with thin white stripes, covered by a starchy white pinafore and topped off by the official MSMC nurses' cap, presented during the annual capping ceremony in Mary Chapel.

Collar detail of the Mount nurse's cape.

But the most wonderful part, the pièce de résistance, had to be the dashing thigh-length navy cape with bright red lining.

These were made of a heavy wool (think Navy peacoat) and had a standup collar with M.S.M.C. embroidered in shiny gold.  A chain at the back allowed it to be hung on a hook without damaging the fabric.

Unlike the midwives of Nonnatus House, Mount nurses probably never made their speedy rounds on bicycles in their capes, and if they had they would have roasted in the heavy wool. But what an impressive sight they would have made!

Thanks to Alanna Madrid '15 in the Alumnae Relations Office, we recently acquired for the Archives a cape in perfect condition that was worn by a member of the Class of 1953 -- only the second baccalaureate nursing class in California history. Another alumna donated her dress, pinafore and cap several years ago, so we now have the complete ensemble from the first years of MSMU's nursing department. Stop by for a visit – there's more to archives than papers and photos!

Breaking another barrier

Mrs. Betty Smith Williams of the nursing faculty takes a
phone call with colleagues Sister Albert Mary, Miss Eloise
King, and Sister John Bernard, in 1959 or 1960.

SKIMMING THROUGH THE 1957 YEARBOOK, we noticed that among the 10 smiling members of the Nursing Department faculty was a black woman identified as Mrs. Betty Williams. We wondered whether that was unusual -- how many faculties at California colleges and universities had black faculty in those days?

It didn't take Google long to produce an answer: Our Betty Smith Williams was the first black professor in California -- male or female, in any subject, anywhere in higher education. It says so right here.

Betty Williams, center, with nursing colleagues Marjorie
Cogan and Sister Richard Joseph in 1958. 

Should we be surprised? After all, the Mount graduated a young black woman, Vivian Burgess '52, from its first-in-California bachelor's in nursing program. The brilliant Sister who made that happen, Rebecca Doan, CSJ, was still chair of Nursing in the fall of 1956 when Betty Williams broke the color barrier and joined the faculty.

Williams herself had already broken that same  barrier when she became only the second African-American to earn a master's in nursing at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio in 1954.

She taught at the Mount for 13 years, moving to the faculty at UCLA and many more firsts. You can read about them here: http://bit.ly/1Tt95d4

Now 82, Dr. Betty Smith Williams remains actively engaged in issues of ethnic and racial diversity in nursing and nursing education, and continues to speak to the importance of cultural competency among nursing professionals.

In 2010, she received the prestigious designation Living Legend of the American Academy of Nursing, the second member of the Mount community to reach that pinnacle after Sister Callista Roy, CSJ (2007).

Dr. Williams' amazing academic career got its start because our {Unstoppable} founding Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet weren't afraid to be bold -- nor were they interested in holding to the conventions of the day.

To the women and men of the Class of 2016 who will soon receive their diplomas, congratulations! In the footsteps of Sister Rebecca, Vivian Burgess, Dr. Williams and all the other remarkable people of the Mount who have gone before you, be {Unstoppable}. Be a first.

Betty Williams, seated at the end of the table, joins the rest of the
nursing faculty in a humorous moment during a meeting, 1956-1957.

[updated 1/25/2022]

The men of the Mount

One of the questions I get all the time is some form of "who were the first men at Mount St. Mary's College"?

This came up in the article on the Archives in the current Mount Magazine. It notes that the first male nursing student I've been able to find graduated in 1993, although men were allowed to apply to the program 20 years before that.

Sometimes we Lone Arrangers have to throw a "factoid" out there and see what happens. I'm delighted to report that I have now heard from the official First Male Nursing Graduate, complete with a fax of his diploma and the article above.

He's Michael Clannin, Class of '75. He had served in Vietnam as a Navy corpsman with a unit of Marines in a field hospital. (Think M*A*S*H.) After that heroic work he had plenty of experience but lacked the degree for an RN, and the Mount was a perfect fit.

Around that time the College started accepting what were called "capitation" grants, part of an effort by the U.S. government to cope with a shortage of nurses. As recipients of federal funds, institutions can't discriminate on the basis of gender, so single-sex schools like the Mount had to adjust admissions policy. Mike was one of the beneficiaries and can't say enough about the support he received, especially from the renowned Sister Callista Roy.

The Mount article mentions music students going way back to the 1930s. I had a phone message today from another male alum (as in alumnus), Hank Alviani, a music graduate in the Class of '74. I sent him an email with the following brief history: The earliest male students would have been Roman Catholic seminarians and priests studying Gregorian chant at the Bishop Cantwell School of Liturgical Music. The director of the school, Dom Ermin Vitry, OSB, also directed the College music program. Master's degrees in music were conferred as early as 1932 and expanded with the opening of the Graduate School in 1955. One of the most celebrated music programs in the city, the Mount's Department of Music began admitting male undergraduates around 1961. By the time Hank graduated, many men had received Mount degrees.

There seemed to be not much more than a handful in any given year, however. The article above, an undated story from the Los Angeles Times, mentions just three (ca. 1974): Hank, Mike Clannin, and Paul Gibson. The story says there were a dozen male undergraduates on campus at the time.

Our president, Jacqueline Powers Doud, likes to say we're a women's college "with a few good men." That has been the case for a surprisingly long time, and three cheers to our alumni for reminding us.