Kelly, Ruth (Lundt) RN, PhD 1916 -1998

KELLY LUNDT, MULLER

Posted By: S. Ferrall - IAGenWeb volunteer
Date: 11/1/2021 at 16:46:50

Ruth Lundt Kelly, founding dean of the Medical College of Ohio's School of Nursing, died Sunday, March 1st, 1998, in Perrysburg Home. She was 81. Dr. Kelly died of complications from emphysema, which had forced her to move from a West Toledo apartment to the Kingstone Residence at Perrysburg, Ohio.

Dr. Kelly, an Iowa native, left the facility of the Cornell University New York Hospital School of Nursing in 1970 to set up the nursing program at South Toledo medical college. It would be the first bachelor's degree nursing program in northwest Ohio. This was an opportunity to fulfill her dream to start a school of nursing. Classes began in the fall of 1971 and in 1974 the first 14 Medical College of Ohio nursing students received bachelor's degrees from Bowling Green State University.

Dr. Kelly arranged an affiliation with the University of Toledo as well, and today the nursing school has 390 under-graduating and 150 graduate students. Dr. Kelly retired from MCO in 1979 and moved to Cary, North Carolina, but returned to the area in 1989 and spent the remainder of her life at Toledo.

Ruth Lundt Kelly was born October 13, 1916, the daughter of Edward H. and Lydia (Muller) Lundt. She attended rural school in Volga Township and was a 1932 graduate of Strawberry Point High School. Dr. Kelly earned a nursing diploma from Finley Hospital in Dubuque, Iowa; bachelor's and master's degrees from Teachers College at Columbia University in New York, and a doctorate from Harvard University. She was assistant professor of nursing at the University of Iowa from 1951 to 1959 and at Columbia from 1959 to 1965. She joined the Cornell-New York Hospital faculty as an associate and later became a full professor and an associate dean before leaving for Toledo.

Dr. Kelly authorized a textbook on nursing research. She was a veteran of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during World War II.

She was a member of the American Nurses Association, National League for Nursing, New York Academy of Science and numerous professional honor societies. She was a past president of the Iowa League for Nursing and from 1973 to 1976 was a member of the Ohio Commission on Nursing.

Dr. Kelly has donated her body to the medial college. Private memorial services will be held.

Ruth is survived by a cousin, Charlotte Fliehler of Strawberry Point.

~Clayton County Press Journal, Wednesday, March 11, 1998, pg 8