T-R PHOTO BY MIKE DONAHEY - “The lighting of the lamp” — an Evangelical and Community School of Nursing tradition — was symbolized Saturday by the lighting of a candle by alumni attending the 100th Anniversary of First Graduating Class luncheon at the local Best Western Regency Inn.

While the graduates from the 1919 Evangelical and Community School of Nursing in Marshalltown have passed on, the school’s legacy was alive and well Saturday morning at the Best Western Regency Inn.

There, a number of graduates had a chance to relive school memories with fellow classmates over lunch and hear exciting news about expanded scholarship opportunities for young men and women offered by the group’s alumni association.

“This luncheon is important because it brings together alumni from the Evangelical and Community School of Nursing together,” President of the Alumni Association Pat Thompson said. “Ina Claude Ward, Class of 46 is here, as well as representatives of the Class of ’85, so we have a range of nurse who have done many fantastic things throughout their careers while excelling at patient care. Nursing is a combination of science and art. Nursing brings a different perspective to health care than other (medical) professions.”

Ward graduated in 1946 from St. Thomas Mercy School of Nursing, which later joined Evangelical School of Nursing. Her career included stops in Mason City, Iowa Falls and Marshaltown.

Ward, 94, and now residing in Nevada, has been a committed donor to the Scholarship Fund, Thompson said. Ward was also a longtime volunteer at the Marshalltown Public Library before retiring and was a familiar face to many library users.

The Class of 69 celebrated its 50th anniversary and eight alumni from that class were busy sharing news about children, grandchildren and retirement. One was Rosemary Lyle of Laurel.

“The school was wonderful, and provided an excellent education,” Lyle said. “We had outstanding teachers.”

Arlys Bessman Boyington of Marshalltown has a distinctive nursing lineage.

“My grandmother was in the first graduating class of 1917,” she said. “I am a third generation nurse.”

Boyington went from working eight-hour days as a hospital staff nurse to 10-hour days as a nursing supervisor. She retired after 45 years in the profession and resides on a farm south of town.

Bette Smith Choate of Marshalltown said she practiced nursing for only a short time because her husband’s job as chief power plant operator at the local Fisher Controls Governor Road facility (now Emerson Process Management) was extremely demanding on family time.

However, she and spouse found much joy, challenges and opportunities as foster parents and adopted four children.

“Three were from a sibling group and were special needs … their mother did drugs and alcohol when pregnant,” she said. “I used nursing skills taking care of my kids.”

The genesis of the Evangelical and Community School of Nursing began when Marshalltown supported two competing hospitals.

St. Thomas Mercy, a Roman Catholic hospital, and Evangelical Deaconess merged, becoming the Marshalltown Area Community Hospital Nov. 1, 1969 and later, Marshalltown Medical and Surgical Center in 1985.

St. Thomas opened in 1904 by the Sisters of Mercy, an order of Catholic nuns, and was dedicated by Archbishop J.J. Keane of Dubuque. It operated a nursing school from 1904 to 1948.

The Evangelical Deaconess Home and Hospital opened in 1914. It was founded by the Rev. Karl Rest, a pastor of the German Evangelical Friends Church.

He created the Evangelical Deaconess Society. The organization was inspired to build the Evangelical Deaconess Home and Hospital.

The hospital opened on South Third Avenue and Main Street – at the edge of Marshalltown’s east business district.

The Evangelical Deaconess Hospital and Marshalltown Area Community Hospital – MMSC’s predecessors – operated a second nursing school.

That school existed from 1914 to 1986, and closed with the graduating class of 1986.

A number of its graduates still work or reside in central Iowa.

The most recent nursing school dorm was at 9 N. Fourth Ave., currently home to Center Associates and the Substance Abuse and Treatment Unit of Central Iowa, known as SATUCI.

MM&SC sold the building in 1993 to Center Associates and SATUCI, which moved in the following year after remodeling, according to Center Associates Business Manager Bev Worden.