McKEVIT, Margaret Lillie

MCKEVIT, ANDREW

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 1/23/2016 at 14:20:48

BIOGRAPHY of MARGARET LILLIE McKEVIT
Graceland University

Margaret Lillie McKevit was born on September 27, 1933, Independence, Missouri, the daughter of Oliver and Mabel (Andrew) McKevit. Appropriately, Margaret McKevit was born at the Independence Sanitarium and Hospital, where her mother had trained as a nurse.

Margaret enrolled at Graceland in 1951 and received her A.A. in nursing in 1955 after studying at the Independence Sanitarium. She continued her education at the University of Colorado, completing her bachelor's degree in 1958 and her M.S.N. in 1962.

Margaret began her educational career at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, from 1953 to 1961, then taught at the University of Wisconsin during 1963-66.

Her pioneering decade in establishing the Graceland nursing campus at Independence, Missouri, started in 1966 when she assumed a year-long position to coordinate a curriculum revision study at the Sanitarium. The diploma nursing school at the Sanitarium had existed since 1910. The Nursing Advisory Committee was established in 1967 and had completed its findings in September of that year. As a chair of the Nursing Advisory Committee and director of nursing studies during 1967-68, Margaret developed Graceland's baccalaureate nursing program, which was passed by the Board of Trustees in January of 1968 and approved by the Iowa Board of Nursing the next month. In May of 1971, the nursing division offered total professional curriculum and graduated its first students in the nusring major.

Margaret then served as the college's first Division of Nursing chair from 1968 to 1976.

In addition to her administrative duties, Magarget taught Health Care Systems and the Issues and Research courses to Graceland students. She was also the first woman to serve on the Independence Sanitarium and Hospital Board of Trustees.

Margaret left Graceland in 1976 to join the faculty at Louisiana State University Medical Center School of Nursing, serving as director of the baccalaureate nursing program there. However, she maintained her connection to Graceland as a member of the college's Board of Trustees from 1980 to 1994.

Margaret currently [2008] resides in New Orleans, Louisiana.

McKevit Manor, the housing unit created in 1970-71 for nursing students in Independence, was named in Margaret's honor.

SOURCES:

Edwards, Paul M. "The Hilltop Where. . . . An Informal History of Graceland College." p. 137. Venture Foundation. Lamoni IA. 1972.

Goehner, David. “The Graceland College Book of Knowledge: From A To Z.” p. 426. Herald House. Independence MO. 1997.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, January of 2016

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