Chaffee Undergraduate Nursing Award Fund
Ellen Chaffee retired from the University of ϲʹ’s School of Nursing in 1984, but the school was always in her thoughts. That same year, Chaffee established a scholarship fund with ϲʹ to provide an annual scholarship to the School of Nursing’s best qualified student, thus continuing her legacy of enabling prospective nurses to achieve their goals.
Chaffee taught courses ranging from anatomy to pathophysiology and developed practical and theoretical courses in operating room procedure, obstetrics and medical/surgical nursing. She was beloved by her students, who named her a “Great Professor” in the 1966 Owl yearbook. Furthermore, Chaffee worked to better the school as a whole, and in her will, created for the School of Nursing an endowed fund that maintained and expanded the university’s nursing skills lab.
That skills lab now bears Chaffee’s name. Legacy was important to her. She specifically noted in her fund with ϲʹ that recipients of scholarships in her name were to receive a congratulatory plaque. Chaffee respected and honored accomplishment, and in creating the Chaffee Undergraduate Nursing Award Fund, she ensured that exemplary nursing students would not only be able to complete their degrees, but that they would be celebrated.
For more on Prof. Chaffee’s contributions to the University of ϲʹ, visit and find the scholarship here ϲʹ, Scholarship Search.