Marguerite Mansperger, 89, Led Virginia Mason Nursing School
Marguerite Mansperger, 29-year director of the Nursing Service and School of Nursing at Virginia Mason Medical Center (Seattle), wore her starched nurse's cap to work long after others stopped wearing theirs.
To the ramrod-straight "Miss M," as she was known, the cap was not only a uniform. It also meant compassion tempered with authority.
"I worked under Marguerite when I started in hospital administration in 1955; then I became her boss," said Austin Ross, former vice president and executive administrator at Virginia Mason.
"She was a role model in ethics and mentoring. She had the ability to pull good people around her and make them grow. She never drew attention to herself but gave credit to those around her."
Miss Mansperger was so shy of the limelight that she tried to persuade administrators not to create a nursing endowment in her name.
"She thought they were giving her too much of an honor," said her niece Lois Mansperger of Seattle. "They overrode her and created it anyway. She did a tremendous amount for that hospital."
She also threw summer picnics for staff members and friends at the Maple Valley home she shared with her sister, Katherine Mansperger, and many cats and dogs.
Miss Mansperger died of pulmonary failure Sunday (April 26). She was 89.
"She was the most wonderful nursing supervisor," said her friend Annette Ross. "She listened, you know. She was a boss, yet she thought of herself as one of them."
Born in Purdy, Pierce County, Miss Mansperger grew up at her family's apple orchard in Yakima. She took her nurse's training at the old Seattle General Hospital School of Nursing and earned a bachelor's degree in nursing at the University of Washington.
She did private nursing in Seattle and Santa Barbara, Calif., then got a job at Virginia Mason in 1946, intending to stay a year. She retired in 1975.
Miss Mansperger did not use her authority as a whip but as an example, Austin Ross said. She was so warmly regarded that in conflicts she usually prevailed, seasoning calm reason with humor.
Other survivors include seven nieces and nephews in Washington and California.
A memorial gathering is at 2 p.m. May 9 at her home. Directions: 206-937-4018.
Remembrances may go to the Marguerite Mansperger Endowment for the Advancement of Excellence in Nursing, c/o the Virginia Mason Foundation, 1218 Terry Ave., Seattle, WA 98101.
Carole Beers' phone message number is 206-464-2391. Her e-mail address is: cbee-new@seatimes.com