Chatham Gravesite of Nursing Association’s Founder Dedicated with Historical Marker

PARK RIDGE, Ill.—The Chatham gravesite of Agatha Hodgins, founder of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA), will be dedicated with a commemorative marker on Friday, October 12, 2007. Representatives from the AANA national headquarters near Chicago and members of the Massachusetts nurse anesthesia community will gather at 11 a.m. in Union Cemetery, Chatham, Mass., to honor Hodgins and officially mark the gravesite.

“My hope in having the grave of our founder recognized in this manner is not only to honor Agatha Hodgins for her courage and foresight, but to educate others about nurse anesthesia as they tour the Chatham area,” said AANA President Wanda Wilson, CRNA, PhD. “Agatha’s dream of nurse anesthesia being the first nursing specialty with an association of its own undoubtedly has been one of the key reasons for the growth of this dynamic profession.”

Hodgins began her career as a nurse anesthetist in 1908 when Dr. George Crile, a renowned surgeon at Lakeside Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, asked her to become his personal anesthetist. Crile identified special qualities in Hodgins and determined that she would make an outstanding anesthetist—someone he could trust to help him achieve his goal of improving anesthesia safety for all patients.

Twenty-three years later, Hodgins founded the National Association of Nurse Anesthetists (NANA) on June 17, 1931 in Cleveland. During the association’s first Annual Meeting in 1933, Hodgins was named honorary president. In 1939, NANA changed its name to the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, and reincorporated in Illinois. Hodgins passed away in 1945 in her late 60s.

The commemorative marker, approved by the Chatham Cemetery Commission, consists of a 12” x 12” rose-polished granite base with an engraved bronze plate bearing the inscription:
“Agatha C. Hodgins, Founder of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, June 17, 1931.”

The driving force behind locating and commemorating Hodgins’ gravesite was Virginia Gaffey, CRNA, BS, 1969-70 president of the AANA. Gaffey took a keen interest in the association’s founder when, as a newcomer to the profession, she discovered that no one seemed to know where Hodgins had been laid to rest.

“I knew she was originally from Canada, and thought it was a possibility that she went back to Canada when she retired, but nothing was definite,” said Gaffey. Years later, the retired CRNA and resident of Green Harbor, Mass., decided to thoroughly research Hodgins’ life. “I couldn’t accept not knowing exactly where she was buried and what happened to her. After all, she is the founder of the profession that I practiced for more than 40 years. This research has been very satisfying, and I enjoyed it tremendously.”

Through funeral, genealogy, and real estate records, Gaffey has spent much of the last two years assembling pieces of Hodgins’ life. She discovered that Hodgins was originally from Toronto, Canada, one of eight children. Her father was an Episcopalian minister who did not want his daughters to work, but she defied her father by coming to the United States and enrolling in Boston University to become a nurse. After graduating, Hodgins moved to Cleveland where she became a nurse anesthetist. She purchased a house in Chatham in 1919, which she used as a vacation home until she retired and made Chatham her full-time residence. Hodgins never married or had children, dedicating her life to anesthesia patient care and the growth of her profession.

In attendance at the ceremony will be Wilson and Gaffey, as well as AANA Executive Director Jeffery Beutler, CRNA; Senior Director of Communications Christopher Bettin; Archivist-Librarian Kathy Koch; Past-President (1983-84) Patrick Downey, CRNA; Past-President John Garde, CRNA; Regional Director Steve Alves, CRNA, PhD; students from Northeastern University College of Health Sciences/Bouve College of Health Sciences School of Nursing in Boston; and various members of the Massachusetts Association of Nurse Anesthetists.

Read the Cape Cod Time's Coverage of this event here: http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071013/NEWS/710130343