Lynne Mixson
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G R O W I N G B O L D E R / S E P T E M B E R D I G I TA L D I G E S T 2 1
Photography by Jacob Langston
Dr. Loretta “Lee” Ford
In 1937, 16-year-old Loretta Ford was graduating from high school early, having skipped two grades. Like many young women of that era, she felt she basically had three options. “Teaching, nursing or the convent,” Ford said. Without money for college, Ford chose nursing and became a trailblazer in the field. “My preference would've been to be in college to learn to be a teacher,” she said. “I always wanted to be a teacher, and I took a very circuitous route to get there. But it was a good decision.” Ford became a nurse’s aide at 16; and then at 18, she enrolled in nursing school at Middlesex General Hospital in New Jersey. After serving in the U.S. Army Air Force, Ford attended the University of Colorado on the G.I. Bill, earning her bachelor’s, master’s and eventually doctorate degree in nursing. She accomplished this while married and working full-time as a public health nurse in rural Colorado and teaching at the university. “That was quite a trick,” she said. “I didn't think anything of it at the time. I just arranged my schedule so I could do that.” In 1965, with the Vietnam War raging and Civil Rights protests spreading across the nation, rights to healthcare were being scrutinized. Physicians were criticized for the lack of care available for rural and unserved populations. At the same time, there was a need for advanced education in nursing that was more clinically focused and able to expand the role of nurses. Ford teamed up with pediatrician Henry Silver to address both concerns. Together, they created a pediatric nurse practitioner program at the University of Colorado — the first of its kind. “I was interested in what nursing could demonstrate,” she said. Silver also was interested in the care of children and felt that nurses could provide care in well-baby clinics, which would focus on growth and development, parenting, exercise and nutrition, as well as parent education. “It was all wellness-oriented,” Ford said. Ford encountered opposition to the new role from almost every side, including from educators, older nurses, and younger physicians. Legalities were questioned. The one welcoming group? Patients.
