Nursing School Dean Retiring

After 32 years of service to the University, first as director of the School of Nursing and Nursing Service and then as dean, Rhoda R. Russell will retire.
Retirement of Dean Russell, AM, RN, was officially announced to the faculty of the School of Nursing yesterday by Allan F. Smith, vice president for Academic Affairs, who also announced the appointment of Norma E. Marshall, MS, RN, as acting dean.
“Even though she had earned her retirement, it will not be possible to separate Dean Russell’s contributions from nursing practice or from the School of Nursing. Clearly she has made our school one of the finest in the nation,” said Vice President Smith.
Mrs. Russell joined the faculty in 1940 as director of the School of Nursing and of University Hospital’s Nursing Service before the school became an autonomous unit in the U-M Medical Center. She was appointed dean in 1955.
Under her administration the U-M School of Nursing steadily increased its enrollment to where it became the largest undergraduate nursing program in the U.S. Dean Russell was also instrumental in developing graduate nursing education programs in the School in medical-surgical and psychiatric nursing, both under grants from The Kellogg Foundation and The National Institutes of Mental Health.
A graduate with a diploma in nursing from Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City and a recipient of both BS and AM degrees from Columbia University, Dean Russell rose steadily to positions of prominence in the national nursing profession.
She has been president, vice president and a board member of the Michigan Nurses Association; past and present board member of the Michigan League for Nursing; past board member of the State Licensing Board; and past member of the U-M Senate Advisory Board.
Mrs. Russell was also named professional consultant to the surgeon general of the U.S. Army, advising him on matters related to nursing service and administration.
Mrs. Marshall brings to her new role as acting dean of the School of Nursing a background of teaching, administration and academic counseling. She has been instrumental in a unique program to provide a bachelor of science degree in nursing (BSN) for registered nurses who preciously attended two or three-year state-accredited associate degree or diploma programs.
Like those she has been helping acquire further academic study toward a degree, Mrs. Marshall completed a diploma nursing program at Edward W. Sparrow Hospital School of Nursing in Lansing. She then entered Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where she received her BSN and master’s degree in nursing.
Mrs. Marshall joined the U-M Nursing Faculty in 1953, and was progressively promoted to assistant and associate professor, as well as Assistant Dean. She also serves as adviser to registered nurses admitted to the U-M nursing baccalaureate program.
Mrs. Marshall and her husband, Claude, who is an engineer with North American Rockwell Corp., live with their daughter, Anne, at 121 N. Dixboro Rd., Ann Arbor Township.