Katherine MacLaggan
When Katherine MacLaggan was appointed the first Director of Nursing at UNB in 1958, she was known as one of the top nursing educators in the country. The Fredericton Native attended the Royal Victoria School of Nursing in Montreal, from which she graduated in 1943 and eventually went on to receive a Bachelor of Nursing in Administration and Surpervision degree from McGill University in 1952. In 1957, she obtained an MA from Columbia University, and in 1965, she became the first nursing instructor in Canada to receive a degree at the doctoral level, a Doctor of Education, from the same university. Her "brilliant" dissertation, Portrait of nursing: a plan for the education of nurses in the Province of New Brunswick became a guide for nursing educators in Canada. At the time of her death in 1967, she was the President of the Canadian Nurses' Association. A tribute published in The Canadian Nurse stated that Dr. MacLaggan would be remembered "as a capable, humanistic practitioner of nursing...a superb teacher, an able administrator, an understanding counselor, and a gentlewoman of great integrity, courage, and strength of purpose."
Source(s):
- UA Case 77
© UNB Archives & Special Collections, 2013