Clara Engle
Clara Engle | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 7, 1913 Freeport, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | December 4, 2003 (age 90) Lapeer, Michigan, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Nurse, medical missionary |
Clara Anna Engle (May 7, 1913 – December 4, 2003) was an American nurse and medical missionary who served in the United States Army Nurse Corps during World War II and worked in Turkey from 1946 to 1966.
Early life and education
[edit]Engle was born in Freeport, Illinois, the daughter of Sidney John Engle and Anna Johanna Hillebrecht Engle.[1][2] She graduated from high school in Imlay City, Michigan, and earned her nursing degree from Butterworth Hospital in 1937.[3] She earned a bachelor's degree in 1953,[4] and a master's degree in nursing in 1958, both from Wayne State University.[5] She was president of the Butterworth Hospital Alumni Association.[6]
Career
[edit]
Engle served with the Army Nurse Corps during World War II.[6][7] She was attached to a hospital ship at Halloran General Hospital in 1944, and rose to the rank of first lieutenant at Stark General Hospital in South Carolina.[8][9] After the war, Engle went to Turkey as a medical missionary with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, working at a hospital in Gaziantep, and at the American University in Beirut, from 1946 to 1956.[10][11] She spoke about her work to church groups during a furlough in 1952,[12] and after her missionary term ended in 1958.[13] In 1959, she worked at Michigan State University's School of Nursing.[14]
In Turkey again from 1960[11] to 1966, Engle established clinics for premature infants and heart patients. She began a nurses' aide training program, and a nursing school. She received a citation from the U.S. State Department in 1966, at a ceremony in İzmir. "It is a measure of Miss Engle's success that her efforts have largely broken down many of the prejudicial barriers and persuaded many young women of good families either to enter the nursing profession or to participate in the badly needed nurses aide program in Turkish hospitals," noted consul general G. Lewis Schmidt on the occasion.[10]
Engle worked in various healthcare settings in Michigan after she returned to the United States, including the Caro State Home and Training School, a state institution for people with developmental disabilities.[15][16]
Personal life
[edit]Engle died in 2003, at the age of 90,[17] in Lapeer, Michigan.
References
[edit]- ^ "Obituary for Sidney John Engle". The Flint Journal. 1978-06-19. p. 33. Retrieved 2025-03-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Former Freeporter to be Nurse in Turkey". Freeport Journal-Standard. 1946-08-22. p. 6. Retrieved 2025-03-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Butterworth Alumns Plan Winter Picnic". The Grand Rapids Press. 1959-02-26. p. 15. Retrieved 2025-03-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Schram, Donald F. (1953-08-15). "The Day in Michigan". Detroit Free Press. p. 4. Retrieved 2025-03-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Imlay City". The Times Herald. 1958-04-06. p. 23. Retrieved 2025-03-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "Clara Engle, Local Nurse, Receives Her Commission". The Grand Rapids Press. 1943-01-04. p. 9. Retrieved 2025-03-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Ex-Butterworth Nurse Accepted by Army Corps". The Grand Rapids Press. 1942-12-17. p. 19. Retrieved 2025-03-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Thumb Briefs". The Times Herald. 1945-07-24. p. 8. Retrieved 2025-03-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Women in Service". The Times Herald. 1945-04-19. p. 12. Retrieved 2025-03-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "Secretary Rusk Cites American Nurse Who Served the People of Turkey" Department of State News Letter (July 1966): 19.
- ^ a b May, Esther M. (1960-08-07). "Personally Yours". The Saginaw News. pp. 25, 26. Retrieved 2025-03-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Church Groups Hear Medical Missionary". The Times Herald. 1952-09-05. p. 17. Retrieved 2025-03-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Church to Give Out Palms Sunday". The Flint Journal. 1958-03-26. p. 14. Retrieved 2025-03-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Red Cross Names Nurse Chairman". The Saginaw News. 1959-02-06. p. 16. Retrieved 2025-03-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Valley Report". The Saginaw News. 1973-04-24. p. 5. Retrieved 2025-03-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "USA Honor Society Group Visits State Home Patients". The Newsweekly: All the News for the Western Thumb. 1973-03-15. p. 21. Retrieved 2025-03-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Obituary for Clara Engle". The Times Herald. 2003-12-07. p. 14. Retrieved 2025-03-04 – via Newspapers.com.