Head and shoulders image of Professor Myrtle E. Crawford, Assistant Dean of Nursing.

Bio/Historical Note: Myrtle Evangeline Crawford was born on 20 September 1923 in Saskatoon. She received her elementary and secondary education in Humboldt, Saskatchewan. Crawford completed her BSc in Nursing in 1946 at the University of Saskatchewan, having taken the clinical portion of her education at the Grey Nuns Hospital in Regina. In 1953 she earned an MA from Columbia University in New York. Crawford was appointed lecturer and director of Clinical Education in 1961. She was promoted to assistant and associate professor, becoming full professor in 1975. Crawford served as assistant dean of Nursing from 1974-1980. She was influencial in the establishment of the Master of Nursing program. Crawford was a respected leader of Canadian nursing whose unselfish devotion to her chosen profession and her community benefited thousands of nurses and other health-care workers. A practitioner, teacher, historian, researcher and author, Crawford’s foresight and willingness to challenge tradition was counterbalanced by a steadfast determination to preserve what she deemed valuable. She shared her knowledge of nursing and her expertise in moral, ethical, legal and political issues by lecturing at conferences all over the world. Crawford not only fulfilled obligations to her colleagues and students at the University of Saskatchewan but also served on provincial and national nursing associations. Her contribution to nursing spans international, national and provincial boundaries. From 1963 to 1965, she was president of the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses’ Association, and she held the presidency of the Canadian Nurses Foundation from 1984 to 1988. Myrtle Crawford died on 22 July 1989 in Saskatoon at age 65.