ALUMNI RELATIONS

IN MEMORIAM:

A TRIBUTE TO ROZELLA MAY SCHLOTFELDT (1914-2005)

Rozella May Schlotfeldt, PhD, RN, FAAN

Dean Emerita, Professor Emerita, and Honorary Alumna of

the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University

June 29, 1914 – July 23, 2005

A visionary leader and tireless champion of excellence in nursing, Dr. Rozella May Schlotfeldt served as a role model for countless aspiring nursing students and leaders. With her innovations and local, national, and international leadership, Dr. Schlotfeldt changed forever the face of nursing, first in Cleveland and then as her ideas reverberated more widely, throughout the world. A warm and gracious person, she had a knack for making those around her feel valued, even while challenging them to look at new concepts and express differences of opinions.

Rozella May Schlotfeldt was born June 29, 1914, in Dewitt , Iowa . After watching her mother care for patients as a private nurse, she decided to become a nurse herself. In 1935, she earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Iowa and began caring for mothers and infants. In 1938, she became an instructor at the University of Iowa Hospitals School of Nursing and a supervisor of maternity nursing.

From 1944 to 1946, Rozella was 2nd and then 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, serving primarily in France. In 1947, she earned her Master of Science in Nursing Education/Administration from the University of Chicago.

She then moved on to Wayne State University where she taught for 12 years, with a leave in the mid-1950s to earn her PhD in Education and Curriculum Development from the University of Chicago in 1956. She completed her tenure at Wayne State University as Professor and Associate Dean.

In 1960, Dr. Schlotfeldt accepted an appointment as Dean of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University (formerly Western Reserve University ). She viewed her position as a chance for a new beginning at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing. There, Dr. Schlotfeldt made what she considered her most significant contributions to nursing. With the shortage of medical personnel, particularly nurses, Dr. Schlotfeldt saw a professional crisis in nursing and sought to alleviate it in several ways. She served on a national task force committee that developed the 1964 Nurse Training Act, which provided nurses with financial assistance for advanced education. Recognizing the need for highly trained professionals to lead the next generation of nurses, she pushed for graduate training of nurse scientists through a federally funded program that enabled nurses to pursue a PhD in related scientific disciplines. Simultaneously, she revitalized the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing by attracting national leaders in nursing to join the faculty. She also expanded the School's graduate programs and created innovative, flexible curricula which attracted qualified students from diverse backgrounds. Then Dr. Schlotfeldt developed a “collaboration model” for faculty of the School of Nursing and University Hospitals through which faculty held joint appointments in the School and as nursing department heads in the hospital, maximizing opportunities for student learning in clinical settings and improving nursing care. And, she established a research program that influenced nursing practice and led to improvements in the quality of nursing care. Finally, she conceptualized the Nursing Doctorate as the professional degree for nursing, comparable to other professional degrees. Under her deanship, the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing became an integral member of the University community and the School achieved a prominent position in nursing education and research.

Among her other activities, Dr. Schlotfeldt was a founder of the Midwest Alliance in Nursing in 1975 (a parent organization of the Midwest Nursing Research Society), and she held leadership roles in Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and the International Council of Nurses. After retiring from the deanship in 1972, she held Visiting Professorships in nursing at many universities, remaining highly sought after for her intelligence, creativity, and clarity about, as she would say, “nursing qua nursing.” She was named a Living Legend in 1995 by the American Academy of Nursing.

Dr. Schlotfeldt received honorary degrees from Georgetown University , Adelphi University, the Medical University of South Carolina, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Kent State University in Kent, OH. She received numerous distinguished awards and honors from nursing organizations nationally and internationally.

Dr. Schlotfeldt died July 23, 2005, at Judson Retirement Community in Cleveland, OH, at age 91. She is survived by her nephew, Raymond J. Stahl of Port Angelis, WA. Her burial service was held at St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Dewitt, Iowa. Dr. Schlotfeldt is sorely missed by many former students, colleagues, and friends.

Memorial contributions can be sent to the following:

Rozella Schlotfeldt Endowment Fund
Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing
Case Western Reserve University
10900 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH, 44106-4904

Or, go to https://ur-web.case.edu/awc301/MakeAGift.aspx to give online in her memory. A memorial service in her honor will be held at Case Western Reserve University on a date to be determined.

At the last Ohio Nurses Association Biennial Convention, Dr. Karen Budd, current President of ONA, summed up Dr. Schlotfeldt in this way:

“There will never be another Rozella. The combination of her intellect, scrappiness, kindness, sociability, and most of all, vision of what nursing is and can be as a profession, will never be matched. Rozella was passionate and clear about what was needed for nursing to be recognized as a profession, as distinct from an occupation, and one that could be judged favorably by the same criteria that are applied to law, theology, and medicine. She was clear about her definition of what nursing is as a profession, and what distinguishes a nurse from other healthcare workers.”