DUANE
Duane's take
Here's what the official marker has to say, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Back in 1904, two doctors by the names of Arthur C. Scott and Raleigh White, Jr., had themselves a vision.
They'd built a Temple Sanitarium, and they figured a sanitarium worth its salt needed something more than good intentions — it needed trained nurses. So right there, inside a former Catholic convent on South Fifth Street and Avenue F in Temple, they founded a School of Nursing. Small operation at first.
The doctors themselves doing the instructing, alongside the nursing superintendent, a tight little student body learning the trade under one roof. But here's the thing about a good idea — it tends to grow. Scott and White built that school on the philosophy of Florence Nightingale herself.
Not just skills, not just drills — an atmosphere of training and education. That phrase matters. Philosophy has a way of outlasting the people who carry it.
The years rolled by, and the school changed with them. The name shifted. The curriculum broadened.
By 1946, nurses' training had grown to include a Liberal Arts education, offered in conjunction with Temple Junior College. And then 1949 — well, that's when the rest of the country had to sit up and take notice. The Scott and White School of Nursing was ranked among the nation's top programs.
Top programs. In all the land. Not bad for a school that started in a converted convent on a corner in Temple, Texas.
Now, 1968 brought a turning point. Administrators planned a two-year phasing out of the diploma program in nursing, and in its place, the beginning of a baccalaureate nursing program over at Mary Hardin-Baylor College. The old chapter closing so a new one could open.
Sixty-six years that diploma program ran. Sixty-six years. And in that span, the Scott and White School of Nursing graduated one thousand, two hundred and thirty-three nurses — who went on to serve prominently in health care worldwide.
Worldwide. Started in a former convent in Temple, Texas, and spread out across the whole wide earth. That's not a small story.
That's the kind of story a corner lot holds quietly, waiting for someone to stop and listen.
What the marker says
The School of Nursing was founded in 1904 by Dr. Arthur C. Scott and Dr. Raleigh White, Jr., as a part of their Temple Sanitarium to provide professional training for nurses. Initially a small local student body was instructed by the doctors and nursing superintendent at their facility, a former Catholic convent on South Fifth Street and Avenue F in Temple. Doctor Scott & White based the nursing school on the philosophy of Florence Nightingale, and created an atmosphere of training and education. The school expanded over the years, and changes took place in both the name of the school and the diversity of the curriculum. In 1946 nurses' training included a Liberal Arts education in conjunction with Temple Junior College. By 1949 the school was ranked among the nation's top programs in nursing. In 1968 administrators planned a two-year phasing out of the diploma program in nursing and the beginning of the baccalaureate nursing program at Mary Hardin-Baylor College. During its 66 years of existence as a diploma program, the Scott & White School of Nursing graduated 1,233 nurses who served prominently in health care worldwide. (1997)