Barbara Rynerson is grateful for the education she received through the OHSU School of Nursing. After receiving a baccalaureate degree in 1957, her first job was in the old Multnomah County Hospital on the OHSU campus. From there she transferred to the Psychiatric Unit of Hospital South, also on the OHSU campus, and entered the Master’s program in Nursing Education, graduating in 1962.
“I value the solid nursing education I received at OHSU. The variety of courses offered gave me many career opportunities,” she explained.
The first opportunity involved being recruited to help open Dammasch State Hospital in Wilsonville. There she served for three years as Superintendent of Nurses. That job was followed by further study, this time at the University of California, San Francisco in Psychiatric Nursing. Upon completion of that program, she returned to OHSU as a faculty member.
After ten years at her alma mater, Rynerson moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina where she served as an Associate Professor of the UNC School of Nursing. Her professional career included several stints as clinical instructor, lecturer and author. In recognition of her success, she was named the OHSU School of Nursing Distinguished Alumni of the Year in 1997.
Because she valued the education she received at OHSU, Rynerson wanted to support her alma mater. A faithful donor to the school’s annual fund, she wanted to do more, possibly through her estate.
Among the provisions she made in her will was a gift to the OHSU Foundation to benefit the School of Nursing – a simple bequest in support of the educational process. Rynerson is in the process of taking her planning a step further by transferring the plans she has made from a will to a living trust. “That way, my estate will not have to go through the probate process,” she explained. “But I’m not changing any of the provisions – just how they will be administered,” she added.
So though her professional career has taken her far beyond OHSU, Barbara Rynerson’s ties to her alma mater stay strong. By her generous and thoughtful planning, she will have an impact on nursing education at OHSU for years to come.
