Roberta M. West, R.N. 1862–1931

Abstract

E ARLY on the morning of Thursday, December 17, 1931, there passed from our midst Roberta M. West. Ill only a few days from pneumonia, her death has come as a shock to her many friends in the nursing profession. Miss West was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1862, the daughter of Colonel Robert Mayhew West, U. S. A., and Margaret Eddowes West. Her maternal greatgrandfather was first a pupil and then a friend of Dr. Joseph Priestley in England and later followed him to this country. This ancestor was a man of culture and learning, and while not an ordained clergyman was minister for many years of the First Unitarian congregation in Philadelphia, which in the beginning held services in a room in the University of Pennsylvania. Many traditions handed down from these forebears left their impress on a mind unusually and acutely sensitive. Education in the value of books as sources of enchanting pleasures began at a very early period. The alphabet was an unknown subject until long after reading was a set habit. A vital part of her education was the contact through her church with the force of simplicity in daily life linked with the sincere and unemotional piety of Dr. William Henry Furness. Both in the church and its adjunct, the Sunday School, over which the great Shakespearean scholar, Dr. Horace Howard Furness, presided, a liberal culture was always in evidence and elements of this were imbibed and served always as inspirational memories. Her early school days were spent in two private schools; from these she passed through the grammar department of the public school. Later she had private tutors in music, Latin, French, and German. Special courses, only partly completed,