Clara Engle
{{short description|American nurse }}{{Hatnote|For the American politician with a similar name, see Clair Engle.}}{{Infobox person
| name = Clara Engle
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| birth_date = May 7, 1913
| birth_place = Freeport, Illinois, U.S.
| death_date = December 4, 2003 (age 90)
| death_place = Lapeer, Michigan, U.S.
| other_names =
| occupation = Nurse, medical missionary
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Clara Anna Engle (May 7, 1913 – December 4, 2003) was an American nurse and medical missionary who served in the United States Army Nurse Corps during World War II and worked in Turkey from 1946 to 1966.
Early life and education
Engle was born in Freeport, Illinois, the daughter of Sidney John Engle and Anna Johanna Hillebrecht Engle.{{Cite news |date=1978-06-19 |title=Obituary for Sidney John Engle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-flint-journal-obituary-for-sidney-jo/167171277/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |work=The Flint Journal |pages=33 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1946-08-22 |title=Former Freeporter to be Nurse in Turkey |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/freeport-journal-standard-former-freepor/167198409/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |work=Freeport Journal-Standard |pages=6 |via=Newspapers.com}} She graduated from high school in Imlay City, Michigan, and earned her nursing degree from Butterworth Hospital in 1937.{{Cite news |date=1959-02-26 |title=Butterworth Alumns Plan Winter Picnic |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-grand-rapids-press-butterworth-alumn/167171828/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |work=The Grand Rapids Press |pages=15 |via=Newspapers.com}} She earned a bachelor's degree in 1953,{{Cite news |last=Schram |first=Donald F. |date=1953-08-15 |title=The Day in Michigan |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/detroit-free-press-the-day-in-michigand/167194986/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |work=Detroit Free Press |pages=4 |via=Newspapers.com}} and a master's degree in nursing in 1958, both from Wayne State University.{{Cite news |date=1958-04-06 |title=Imlay City |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-herald-imlay-city/167195241/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |work=The Times Herald |pages=23 |via=Newspapers.com}} She was president of the Butterworth Hospital Alumni Association.{{Cite news |date=1943-01-04 |title=Clara Engle, Local Nurse, Receives Her Commission |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-grand-rapids-press-clara-engle-loca/167170191/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |work=The Grand Rapids Press |via=Newspapers.com |pages=9}}
Career
File:ClaraEngleDeanRusk1966.png
Engle served with the Army Nurse Corps during World War II.{{Cite news |date=1942-12-17 |title=Ex-Butterworth Nurse Accepted by Army Corps |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-grand-rapids-press-ex-butterworth-nu/167171030/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |work=The Grand Rapids Press |pages=19 |via=Newspapers.com}} She was attached to a hospital ship at Halloran General Hospital in 1944, and rose to the rank of first lieutenant at Stark General Hospital in South Carolina.{{Cite news |date=1945-07-24 |title=Thumb Briefs |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-herald-thumb-briefs/167171138/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |work=The Times Herald |pages=8 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1945-04-19 |title=Women in Service |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-herald-women-in-service/167171569/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |work=The Times Herald |pages=12 |via=Newspapers.com}} After the war, Engle went to Turkey as a medical missionary with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, working at a hospital in Gaziantep, and at the American University in Beirut, from 1946 to 1956.{{Cite news |last=May |first=Esther M. |date=1960-08-07 |title=Personally Yours |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-saginaw-news-personally-yoursesther/167195898/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |work=The Saginaw News |pages=25, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-saginaw-news-personally-yours-conti/167196273/ 26] |via=Newspapers.com}} She spoke about her work to church groups during a furlough in 1952,{{Cite news |date=1952-09-05 |title=Church Groups Hear Medical Missionary |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-herald-church-groups-hear-medi/167171378/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |work=The Times Herald |pages=17 |via=Newspapers.com}} and after her missionary term ended in 1958.{{Cite news |date=1958-03-26 |title=Church to Give Out Palms Sunday |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-flint-journal-church-to-give-out-pal/167194691/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |work=The Flint Journal |pages=14 |via=Newspapers.com}} In 1959, she worked at Michigan State University's School of Nursing.{{Cite news |date=1959-02-06 |title=Red Cross Names Nurse Chairman |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-saginaw-news-red-cross-names-nurse-c/167171965/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |work=The Saginaw News |pages=16 |via=Newspapers.com}}
In Turkey again from 1960 to 1966, Engle established clinics for premature infants and heart patients. She began a nurses' aide training program, and a nursing school. She received a citation from the U.S. State Department in 1966, at a ceremony in İzmir. "It is a measure of Miss Engle's success that her efforts have largely broken down many of the prejudicial barriers and persuaded many young women of good families either to enter the nursing profession or to participate in the badly needed nurses aide program in Turkish hospitals," noted consul general G. Lewis Schmidt on the occasion.[https://books.google.com/books?id=LgYvAAAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=Clara%20Engle%20State%20Department&pg=RA7-PA19#v=onepage&q&f=false "Secretary Rusk Cites American Nurse Who Served the People of Turkey"] Department of State News Letter (July 1966): 19.
Engle worked in various healthcare settings in Michigan after she returned to the United States, including the Caro State Home and Training School, a state institution for people with developmental disabilities.{{Cite news |date=1973-04-24 |title=Valley Report |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-saginaw-news-valley-report/167194843/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |work=The Saginaw News |pages=5 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1973-03-15 |title=USA Honor Society Group Visits State Home Patients |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-newsweekly-all-the-news-for-the-wes/167195471/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |work=The Newsweekly: All the News for the Western Thumb |pages=21 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Personal life
References
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Category:People from Imlay City, Michigan
Category:Wayne State University alumni