Marion Moses
{{Short description|American physician (1936–2020)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Marion Moses
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| other_names =
| birth_name = Marion Theresa Moses
| birth_date = January 24, 1936
| birth_place = Wheeling, West Virginia
| death_date = August 28, 2020
| death_place = San Francisco, California
| occupation = Physician, nurse, labor activist
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}
Marion Theresa Moses (January 24, 1936 – August 28, 2020) was an American physician, nurse, and labor activist, closely associated with Cesar Chavez.
Early life
Marion Moses was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, the daughter of Maron Moses and Mary Wakim Moses; her grandparents were immigrants from Lebanon. She trained as a nurse at Georgetown University in 1957, and earned a master's degree in nursing education at Teachers College, Columbia University in 1960.{{Cite web|last=Sherman|first=Jocelyn|date=2020-08-29|title=UFW mourns the passing of Dr. Marion Moses who turned a weekend in Delano into a lifetime of service helping Cesar Chavez, farm workers combat the perils of pesticides|url=https://ufw.org/drmoses/|access-date=2020-12-09|website=UFW|language=en-US}} She pursued further studies in English at the University of California, Berkeley, but left to work. In 1976, she earned a medical degree at Temple University.{{Cite news|last=Traub|first=Alex|date=2020-09-15|title=Dr. Marion Moses, Top Aide to Cesar Chavez, Dies at 84|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/us/dr-marion-moses-top-aide-to-cesar-chavez-dies-at-84.html|access-date=2020-12-09|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|last=Robinson|first=Delmer|date=1976-05-30|title=Activist Doctor Has a Cause|pages=43|work=Sunday Gazette-Mail|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64974197/activist-doctor-has-a-causedelmer/|access-date=2020-12-09|via=Newspapers.com}}
Career
Moses worked as a nurse in Charleston, West Virginia, and at UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco. She was a graduate student when she met Cesar Chavez in 1965,{{Cite news|date=1984-11-15|title=Marion Moses Finds Fulfillment Among the Farm Workers|pages=98|work=The Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64968430/marion-moses-finds-fulfillment-among/|access-date=2020-12-09|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=1984-11-15|title=Moses:Fulfillment with UFW (continued)|pages=121|work=The Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64968850/mosesfulfillment-with-ufw-continued/|access-date=2020-12-09|via=Newspapers.com}} and joined his campaign for farmworkers' rights from 1966 to 1971, as a nurse treating strikers. She traveled to New York and stayed with Gloria Steinem while promoting the farmworkers' cause in the East with a national grape boycott, demonstrations, lobbying, and benefit concerts.
Moses became a physician in 1976, and completed an internship at the University of Colorado and a residency in occupational medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. She acted as personal physician to Chavez during and after hunger strikes, and to Catholic activist Dorothy Day. She helped Chavez find rehabilitation and a therapeutic rocking chair for his chronic back pain. From 1983 to 1986, she was medical director of the United Farm Workers union. She was an adjunct professor at San Diego State University's School of Public Health. In 1988, she founded the Pesticide Education Center,{{Cite news|last=Crenson|first=Matt|date=1997-12-16|title=Children Exposed to Dangerous Chemicals|pages=6|work=News-Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64968636/children-exposed-to-dangerous/|access-date=2020-12-09|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=1992-05-31|title=Protections for Farm Workers Still 8 Years in Making|pages=77|work=The Gazette|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64969085/protections-for-farm-workers-still-8/|access-date=2020-12-09|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|last=Butterfield|first=Bruce D.|date=1990-04-26|title=Pesticides a Daily Hazard in the Field|pages=26|work=The Boston Globe|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64973552/pesticides-a-daily-hazard-in-the/|access-date=2020-12-09|via=Newspapers.com}} and remained as its director until her retirement in 2016.{{Cite web|last=Pineda|first=Dorany|date=2020-09-03|title=Marion Moses, Cesar Chavez confidant and expert on farmworkers' health, dies|url=https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2020-09-03/marion-moses-cesar-chavez-farm-workers-dies|access-date=2020-12-09|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}
She wrote about her work in publications that included Harvest of Sorrow: Farm Workers and Pesticides (1992){{Cite book|last=Moses|first=Marion|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/28501900|title=Harvest of sorrow: farm workers and pesticides|date=1992|publisher=Pesticide Education Center|isbn=978-1-881510-01-7|location=San Francisco|language=en|oclc=28501900}} and Designer Poisons: How to Protect Your Health and Home from Toxic Pesticides (1995),{{Cite book|last=Moses|first=Marion|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/33859288|title=Designer poisons: how to protect your health and home from toxic pesticides|date=1995|publisher=Pesticide Education Center|isbn=978-1-881510-15-4|location=San Francisco, CA|language=en|oclc=33859288}} and an essay about Chavez for The Catholic Worker.Moses, Marion. [https://libraries.ucsd.edu/farmworkermovement/essays/essays/198%20Marion%20Moses.pdf "Cesar Chavez, 1927-1993"] The Catholic Worker (June–July 1993). She appears in the 2013 documentary Cesar's Last Fast.{{Citation|last1=Pérez|first1=Richard Ray|title=Cesar's last fast|date=2013|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/874924291|oclc=874924291|access-date=2020-12-09|last2=Parlee|first2=Lorena|last3=O'Brien|first3=Molly|last4=Lear|first4=Lyn Davis|last5=Chatfield|first5=LeRoy|last6=Chavez|first6=Paul|last7=Chavez|first7=Richard|last8=Cohen|first8=Jerry S|last9=Huerta|first9=Fidel}}
Personal life
Moses died in 2020, aged 84 years, in San Francisco, California. Her papers are in the Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University in Detroit.[https://reuther.wayne.edu/files/LP001173.pdf The Marion Moses M.D. Collection], Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Reuther Library, Wayne State University.
References
{{reflist}}
{{Subject bar|portal1=Biography}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moses, Marion}}
Category:Physicians from Wheeling, West Virginia
Category:Nurses from West Virginia
Category:Georgetown University alumni
Category:Teachers College, Columbia University alumni
Category:Temple University School of Medicine alumni
Category:American people of Lebanese descent
Category:21st-century American physicians
Category:21st-century American women physicians