Ruth I. Hall

Second chances appear far more often than storytellers would like us to believe, but their true gift comes in knowing what to make of the opportunity. Ruth Hall knew. Born in 1908 on her family?s DeKalb County homestead between Genoa and Sycamore, Hall dreamed of becoming a nurse. Even after learning clerical skills and working for several years as a secretary, she never lost sight of her true calling. And when she finally attended nursing school at Grant and Washington Hospital and donned the white cap, committing herself to providing health care in her native state and across the globe, it became apparent that the profession had chosen her as much as she had chosen it. Now, after her death April 16, 2003, at the age of 95, generations of nurses to come will find the chance to fulfill their life?s aspirations thanks to Hall?s generosity. Hall bequeathed her estate to nursing scholarships and programs at NIU and Kishwaukee College. The NIU School of Nursing so far has received $500,000 to endow a scholarship and, her descendants say, more is forthcoming. ?We?re so very proud,? said Marilyn Frank Stromborg, chair of the School of Nursing in the NIU College of Health and Human Sciences. ?This will help a group of students usually not reached by scholarships. We have so many students in need of financial help.? Although not her alma mater, Hall grew up in the university?s shadow and touched the lives of many of its nursing graduates when they took jobs in the Chicago area. She wrote in her journal every day, and kept a scrapbook that contained an undated photo clipped from the DeKalb Daily Chronicle. The photo shows Hall supervising three of 24 senior nursing students from NIU receiving clinical experience at Sherman Hospital in Elgin, where Hall worked as a medical-surgical nurse after a 20-year career in the Army Nurse Corps. Hall joined the corps in 1942 as a 2nd lieutenant. During World War II, she served in the harsh areas of India and Burma, where she tended the wounded soldiers of the Burma campaign. After the war ended, she was stationed in Japan as part of the occupying American forces. Still in Japan when the Korean War began, she again cared for the wounded soldiers from that conflict. Her Army career ended at Ft. Sheridan in Illinois, where she retired with the rank of major. Many of her military mementos, including her uniform, medals and scrapbook, are being sent to the archives of The Women?s Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, where all the women who have served in the U.S. armed forces ? or who have served in direct support of the forces, particularly during times of war or conflict ? are individually and collectively honored. After many years at Sherman, Hall retired to take care of her brother back on the family homestead. Her death claimed the last surviving member of her generation of Halls.