Carolina’s nursing pioneer

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In August 1950, Elizabeth L. Kemble took a road trip across North Carolina—nearly 600 miles from Murphy to Manteo—stopping at filling stations, professional offices and stores along the way to chat with her new state neighbors. She wanted to know them, to understand their personalities and needs.

That’s what made the founding dean of the UNC School of Nursing such a powerful figure. She was passionate for people and truly cared about individuals — characteristics of not only a great leader but a dedicated nurse. “I took quite seriously that the boundaries of the university were the boundaries of the state,” she once told a reporter from the Winston-Salem Journal. “I felt we had an obligation to the people.”

Read the complete Carolina Story from Endeavors

This is story number 174 in the Carolina Stories 225th Anniversary Edition magazine.

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