Rita P. Kelleher (Photo from Burns Archives)
Obituary: University Mourns Passing of Dean Emerita Rita P. Kelleher
Rita P. Kelleher, a pioneer in the advancement of baccalaureate nursing who had a 26-year association with Boston College, died at age 101
By
Connell School of Nursing Dean Emerita Rita P. Kelleher, a pioneer in the advancement of baccalaureate nursing who had a 26-year association with the school, died Nov. 2 at the age of 101.A funeral Mass for Ms. Kelleher was celebrated in Saint Paul’s Church in Hingham on Nov. 7.
Ms. Kelleher joined the School of Nursing as its first faculty member in 1947, the year of its founding. She was appointed dean the following year and served until 1968. That year, she was awarded an honorary degree from Boston College. After stepping down from the dean’s post, she taught in the nursing school and served as interim dean for one year until her retirement from Boston College in 1973.
At a time when diploma schools were considered the gold standard for nursing, Ms. Kelleher was among the national vanguard promoting the baccalaureate degree as a requirement for professional practice. At the School of Nursing (which was dedicated in honor of William Connell in 2003), she established a culture where graduates were expected to be inquiring, clinically competent, ethically aware practitioners, and well-prepared candidates for graduate studies.
“Rita Kelleher loved nursing and she most especially loved Boston College Nursing,” said CSON Dean Susan Gennaro. “She helped make both what they are today: a profession and school for women and men who are smart, competent, compassionate, and are dedicated to providing service to others by improving health. Dean Rita Kelleher will long be remembered by the profession and by the many faculty and students whose lives she so wisely helped to shape.
“My personal memory of Dean Kelleher is the gracious and witty way she greeted me as the new Dean and helped infect me with her enthusiasm for Boston College and for educating the nurses of the future. She set a standard of excellence that truly leaves each of us who follow her trying ‘Ever to Excel.’”
Ms. Kelleher was born and raised in Hingham, one of Mary Fee and John Kelleher’s 10 children. She received a diploma in nursing from the Faulkner Hospital School of Nursing in 1929. After graduation, Ms. Kelleher was hired as a private nurse for the family of an executive of the United Fruit Company and accompanied them to the company’s sugar plantation in Cuba where she witnessed society’s injustices to the poor, the lack of education and health care. This experience informed her philosophy of life with a vibrant commitment focused on responding to the hopes and dreams of the poor.
She earned a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a master’s degree in education from Boston University.
Ms. Kelleher was appointed chair of the Board of Registration in Nursing and to the Massachusetts Committee on Children and Youth and the Massachusetts Committee on the Status of Women. As chair of the Legislative Committee of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, she lobbied for, and helped obtain, an all-nurse Board of Registration.
Ms. Kelleher also served as president of the Massachusetts League for Nursing Education, trustee of St. Anselm’s College and chair of the Council on Aging in Hingham.
In 2006, the Massachusetts Nurses Association awarded Ms. Kelleher the Living Legend Award. Earlier this year, the Connell School of Nursing established the Dean Rita Kelleher Award, which honors a CSON alumnus who is an accomplished nursing leader, an ethically aware scientist and a skilled and inquisitive clinician.
As a retiree, Ms. Kelleher’s community service included driving for Meals on Wheels. She played bridge enthusiastically, read widely and enjoyed poetry. She was a devoted aunt to more than 30 nieces and nephews, their children and grandchildren.
In a tribute for her 100th birthday, Woods College of Advancing Studies Dean James A. Woods, SJ, wrote: “A university of Boston College’s stature could not have been built without people like Dean Kelleher...her contagious faith and fortitude uniquely mixing inspiration, innovation, and idealism. She accepted the challenge of imbuing in [the nursing students] knowledge and values that would help them make difficult choices in a society drenched in materialism and self-absorption. As they discovered their talents and learned to think in new ways, Dean Kelleher shared the faculty’s confidence in helping them to believe, as she did, that they had the potential to be the most competent, compassionate and caring nurses ever developed.”
Donations may be made in memory of Ms. Kelleher to the Rita P. Kelleher Scholarship Fund, c/o Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA
02467.