It was with great sadness that the faculty and staff of the Ingram School of Nursing (ISoN) learned of the passing of Margaret Hooton, retired ISoN Associate Professor. A celebration of her life was held in Montreal on September 8, at which Hooton Valerie Shannon gave the eulogy. Former Director of Nursing at the Montreal General Hospital (MGH) and the first Director of Nursing at the ±«ÓãÖ±²¥ Health Centre (MUHC), Shannon had known Hooton for over 50 years. Here below is an abridged version of Shannon’s eulogy.
It is an honour for me to stand before you today and to speak to the life and work of Professor Margaret Eleanor Hooton. Our relationship goes back 52 years, when Marg was my teacher in the basic baccalaureate program in nursing at ±«ÓãÖ±²¥.
Marg was a graduate from Queen's University in Kingston Ontario. In 1963, she returned to Montreal to work in obstetrics at the Royal Vic, and in 1964, while working part time, she began her master's studies in nursing at ±«ÓãÖ±²¥. She graduated in 1966, at which time she was hired as a lecturer in the undergraduate program at the ±«ÓãÖ±²¥ School of Nursing where in time, she would become the associate director of undergraduate education. She retired from ±«ÓãÖ±²¥ on August 31, 1997 after 31 years of distinguished service.
One of my earliest memories of Marg as a superb teacher was when we did a clinical rotation at the Tuberculosis (TB) Hospital in St. Agathe. When Marg started speaking about TB, she framed it in a way we never imagined. TB was a chronic illness arising from socio-cultural, environmental and political factors embedded in our society. You could have heard a pin drop as she took a global, comprehensive approach to what was, at that time, a common illness. She opened our eyes to the need to see our clinical experiences much more broadly, so that we could imagine multiple interventions by various actors at different levels of society. She set our learning on a new track from then on.
Marg was a master teacher and a superb clinician and was, in her day, a legend in Canadian nursing. Once you had been a student of Professor Hooton, you could never be complacent, unthinking or worse yet, certain! Her breadth and depth of knowledge, her personal strength and courage, her wonderfully dry sense of humour and her clear vision of nursing made an indelible mark on all who were her students or colleagues.
When she was given the distinguished teaching award in 1991, her graduating students described her as ‘warm, caring, trusting, and approachable... but one tough woman.’ She was ‘able to challenge students to think critically and unconventionally.’
Marg had great faith, hope and certainly love which she freely gave to her profession, her colleagues and her family.
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With love, great respect and unending gratitude,
Valerie Shannon
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The Ingram School of Nursing’s faculty and staff sends our sincere condolences to Hooton’s friends, family and colleagues. Read Margaret Hooton’s .
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