Margaret Kerr (BSc(N) ’26)

Margaret Kerr was born in Amherst, Ontario; after qualifying as a teacher in Vancouver she taught two years in Kaslo. She graduated from VGH in 1925 was one of the early graduates (in 1926) from the UBC nursing program. She was a school nurse for 2 years and with the support of a Rockefeller Foundation Scholarship she graduated with a Master of Arts from Columbia University in 1929. Subsequently she taught public health nursing for fourteen years at UBC. During these years, she was active in professional organizations.

In 1944 she was elected President of the RNABC, and in the same year joined the staff of The Canadian Nurse. In her more than twenty years as editor she made this journal a leader in its field; by the time of her retirement it reached 113 countries outside Canada. Margaret’s objective was to further the cause of her profession, to develop a body of well-informed nurses and to encourage them to write so that others might benefit from their experiences.

Screen shot of news article from The Canadian Nurse Archives: https://www.canadian-nurse.com/en/archive?dID=1920s

Material provided by the BC History of Nursing Society archives
http://bcnursinghistory.ca/archives/biographical-files