Edna Louise Mason, R.N.
From 1920 until she retired in 1954 with emeritus standing, Edna Louise Mason served this institution as the college nurse when it was the Milwaukee Normal School, the Milwaukee State Teachers College, and the Wisconsin State College. During the first seven years on the staff, she taught courses in hygiene besides performing her nursing duties which she described as ‘looking after the welfare of students’.
She received her professional training at St. Luke’s Hospital in Chicago and began her nursing career at the University of Chicago in 1910. In 1920 she joined the staff of the Milwaukee Normal School. In addition to her work, she found time to participate in many of the college services projects and social activities. She was interested in the theatre and appeared more than once in the faculty skit for Peak Nite. Even after she retired, her interest in faculty affairs continued and she was a character member of the Retired Faculty Club at UWM.
After her death on March 28, 1966, tributes from persons who were close to her professionally and in friendship were expressed and they truly portray the qualities of Edna Mason.
Miss Edna Mason was a remarkably able and dynamic person in the most modest possible manner. She has not endowed with particularly robust health, but she pursued her work with tremendous energy. Throughout her career, she always maintained the highest standards of nursing procedure and ethics. She accepted change readily and adopted new concepts promptly so that she was able to move forward with the progress of the school and to develop an ever-expanding Student Health Service. There is little doubt that her basic soundness and integrity have proved to be a sturdy foundation for the excellent health center of the present and of the future. She was a person who will be remembered with warmth and gratitude by those who worked with her.
Impact
With gentle, gracious, yet penetrating awareness of the needs of others, she came to the aid of students in times of stress and was always a reliable source of help for the many referrals to the Medical Office. It was she who instigated the setting up of special physical examinations for all athletes and to carry on this program she hired a team of competent doctors and nurses. Members of the Faculty, too, knew her as a firm friend. The entire college community, Miss Mason meant the very spirit and fact of consecrated service.
The final tangible evidence of her sincere devotion to students was expressed in her will which established the Edna Lousie Mason Scholarship Foundation. The University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee is indeed grateful for the service she rendered during her lifetime and for her enduring generosity.