Former Nursing dean dies

Described by many as a pioneer and a truly elegant woman, Theresa Lynch, the founder and first dean of the School of Nursing, will be sorely missed by all. Lynch, who served as dean from 1950 to 1965, died February 3 of natural causes. She was 97. The story of Lynch's life is chronicled in her letters, speeches and biographies, which are currently in the archives of the Nursing School. Lynch herself wrote much of the existing histories of the school, as she was the one who created it. After graduating from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania nurses' training school in 1920, Lynch entered the work force. After a brief time away from the University, she returned to direct and subsequently reorganize the program from which she graduated. In 1950, she lobbied the administration to establish a School of Nursing that was independent of both HUP and the School of Medicine. "When she managed to get an independent School of Nursing, there was no female presence on campus," said Joan Lynaugh, director of both the nursing graduate program and the Center for the Study of the History of Nursing. "She really went ahead and established a school in an environment where all of the decisions were made by men." Lynaugh added that Lynch was one of a "handful" of women who held a Ph.D. -- her doctorate was in bacteriology. Interim President Claire Fagin, former dean of the Nursing School, said her first encounter with Lynch was at a conference at the University long before Fagin joined the faculty. "I had seen her years before [I became dean] when I was a young professional," Fagin said. "There was a meeting at Penn in psychiatric nursing, and I was very impressed with the University." Fagin said the atmosphere in the conference room changed drastically when Lynch came to greet the attendees. "She walked into the room to greet us, and she was such an exciting, elegant woman that I remembered her all of those years," Fagin said. And when Fagin returned to the University for good in 1977, Lynch, then 80, was still "exceedingly elegant." In addition to her elegance, immortalized in her portrait currently hanging in the Nursing Education Building, Lynaugh and Fagin said Lynch possessed an attitude of determination as well as the "grace" to successfully reach her goals. "She was a vibrant, very interesting woman," Lynaugh said. "She had a patrician air about her." Fagin said Lynch was a combination of the best of two social eras -- the one right before her and the one she had not yet reached. "Her accomplishments made her a woman ahead of her time," Fagin said. "But she was also a woman of a previous generation, because of the social graces and social skills she had. In a way, she bridged two generations."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.