Stratford nursing class of ‘68 hold reunion, remembering 60 years since the start of their careers
- Gary West
- Nov 6
- 2 min read
There are historical moments that happen in a lifetime and class reunions are always a highlight.
Eleven graduates of the 1968 Stratford General Hospital Nursing program recently met at the end of October at the Arden Park Hotel in Stratford. The graduates were celebrating 60 years since they stepped off “that old rickety elevator” and first met on the third floor of Avon Crest (across from the hospital), in September 1965.
Two classmates took on the job of organizing a reunion every five years, and their last reunion was in 2018, when they celebrated 50 years since their graduation.
Graduate Pat Campbell said there has been only one classmate that they never heard from after graduation, but all the rest they have been able to find and keep in touch.
She said they were paid $15 a month, received free room and board during their three years, and they had no expenses except for buying nurses shoes and white nylons.
“(Nowadays) our grandchildren can’t imagine being debt-free after graduating as a registered nurse in three years,” Campbell said.
After graduation, Campbell and another classmate were fortunate enough to be sponsored by Stratford General Hospital to take a six month post graduate operating room course at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
She says she returned and worked full-time in the operating room at Stratford General, for three years and then part-time for another 20.
Sally Waddell, now living in London, said she remembers their “stiffy starched collars and cuffs, voluminous bib aprons, and beautifully fluted caps” – all awkward and uncomfortable, but they made them feel like “real nurses.”
Pat (Richards) McKinney, still living in Costa Rica, has spent 53 years, living and serving as a camp nurse for young people, teacher of hygiene and basic first aid to needy families, and gives injections to neighbours and friends who cannot afford to pay the pharmacist. She says in some places of Costa Rica, hope is sometimes the best medicine.
Norma (Zehr) Gingerich, who now lives in Milverton, says she will never forget the values instilled in them: compassionate care, excellence in procedure and the dignity of the nursing profession.
To this day, Gingerich says she often triple checks the labels on her medications.
“I have it born from those formative years of nursing at Stratford General Hospital,” Gingerich said.
Over her lifetime, she has also served the poor and under privileged in Guatemala for more than 30 years.
She says that today several of their children, and even a granddaughter, have followed in her footsteps into the medical profession, and it all began at Stratford General Hospital 60 years ago.
The only male graduate was Bob (Scoop) Morris, who now lives in Calgary, said that “Stratford General Hospital School of Nursing from 1965-1968, taught him the importance of kindness, patience, discipline and skill, qualities essential to a successful nursing career.”
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