Beard, Mary (1876–1946)

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Beard, Mary (1876–1946)

American nurse. Born Nov 14, 1876, in Dover, New Hampshire; died Dec 4, 1946, in New York, NY; dau. of Ithamar Warren Beard and Marcy (Foster) Beard; graduate of New York Hospital School of Nursing (1903).

Known largely for increasing standards of public-health nursing education, became director of Boston Instructive District Nursing Association (BIDNA, 1912), which provided nursing to low-income patients and would become the largest visiting nurse association in US under her direction; at Rockefeller Foundation in NY, served as special assistant to director of division of studies (1925–27), assistant to director of division of medical education (1927–30), and associate director of international health division (1930–38); became director of nursing for American Red Cross (1938).