Carolyn Ladd Widmer
A Phi Beta Kappa Wellesley College and Yale University School of Nursing graduate, Carolyn Ladd Widmer served as the School’s first dean from 1942 to 1967. Prior to her arrival at UConn, she was the founding director of the School of Nursing at the American University of Beirut. During Widmer’s tenure, UConn was rated in the top 25% of the nation’s schools of nursing in a 1949 survey performed by the National Committee for the Improvement of Nursing Services.
In 2020, Eric Widmer wrote and published a loving memoir of his mother, "Nursing a Life: A Remembrance of Carolyn Ladd Widmer, 1902-1991." To order, visit ethelwalker.org/everywomanpress.
Josephine A. Dolan
The appointment of the School’s first-full time instructor, Josephine A. Dolan, in 1944, was of great importance. Dolan’s revision of “Goodnow’s History of Nursing” appeared in 1953 and became “Dolan's History of Nursing,” and then later “Nursing in Society.” She was a national authority on the history of nursing and her revisions earned her two honorary doctorates, as well as the Connecticut Nurses’ Association establishment of an award in her honor for outstanding contributions to nursing education.
Building and Archives
Completed in 1919 at a cost of $47,732.42, the Widmer Building was the University of Connecticut’s first infirmary. A substantial building, it contained an open ward for patients, several private rooms, office space, and a large solarium with a fireplace. Located next to Swan Lake, then called Duck Pond, the infirmary was surrounded by a grove of tall trees until a hurricane destroyed many of them.
The School of Nursing first occupied the Widmer Building, also known as “the cottage,” in 1950 when the present-day infirmary was opened. Conversion of the old infirmary’s open ward into a classroom, and the private rooms into offices, made the space suitable for academic purposes. The new accommodations also provided the expanding School with much-appreciated relief after almost a decade of being in confined quarters in the Home Economics building, which is now known as the Design and Resource Management building.
From the mid-1950s until the 1968-69 academic year, the building was shared with the School of Physical Therapy, with one wing of the building assigned to each school. The basement served as a combined library and conference room, and a small adjoining area contained hydrotherapy facilities and a men’s shower and locker room. Additional renovations in the late 1960s further modified the building’s interior to meet academic needs.
Now named Storrs Hall, the building has been declared a historic landmark. In 2011, the building began construction on the Widmer Wing, which includes an atrium, auditorium, and our Clinical Simulation Learning Center. It was dedicated to the School’s founding dean in 2012, and the auditorium was named after alumna Margaret E. “Peggy” Sczesny in 2019.
