New book tells Beth-El nurses story

Joanne Ruth is a community health nurse.

She emphasizes community the way many might recite a litany of letters alphabet soup-style to indicate specialization. It was love of the greater Colorado Springs community that led Ruth, a retired nursing faculty member, to produce “We Are Beth-El  Nurses, a Heritage of Caring at the Foot of Pikes Peak.”

The book will be launched at 2 p.m. March 12 at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, part of the museum’s “The City of Sunshine” exhibit tracing the history of Colorado Springs as a mecca for treatment of tuberculosis. She’s also considering an invitation from the Kraemer Family Library to share the book and its production sometime in April. The book is also available from Amazon and at Clausen Books, 2131 N. Weber St.

“It’s not my story,” Ruth said recently of the book. “It’s the story of the Beth-El alumni, and their gifts of grace, given through the years of changes that have happened in this community. Their stories and contributions don’t belong to us. But we’re their keepers.”

A member of the Beth-El faculty from 1974 to 1999, Ruth earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing. She quickly admits that while she’s earned the title Beth-El historian, she’s not formally trained in the discipline. Rather, her book reflects a passion for nursing, community and the people who attended Beth-El and worked as nurses.

“Historians would call the last few pages of my book an index,” Ruth, who will soon celebrate her 80^th birthday, said recently. “I call it bread crumbs.”

From diseases ranging from Spanish influenza, tuberculosis and polio to the effects of climate change and war, Ruth tells the stories of nursing education and community through the eyes of Beth-El alumni. She used a variety of sources – all accurately cited, she quickly points out – that included personal interviews, newspaper accounts, and the scant files that managed to be transferred as Beth-El’s quarters moved throughout the city during its 115-year history. Now called the Helen and Arthur E. Johnson Beth-El College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Beth-El was merged with UCCS following a 1997 public vote.

“This is our story, the story of nurses in this city,” Ruth said. “The where, when, why, how, and who of caring.”

Ruth traces the roots of her book to visiting Colorado Springs for the first time as a child during World War II, the decision she and her Navy veteran husband made to move to Colorado Springs in 1970, a chance meeting with a 1927 Beth-El graduate and her participation in a Leadership Pikes Peak class. The lesson she retained from Leadership Pikes Peak was the importance of giving back to the city.

But it was the opportunity to make a presentation about Beth-El nurses at the Pikes Peak Library History Symposium: “Doctors, Disease and Dying in the Pikes Peak Region” in 2008 that pushed Ruth into action. A chapter entitled “Nurse, Nurse, Do We Have a Nurse?” will be published in the forthcoming history symposium proceedings entitled “Bigwigs and Benefactors of the Pikes Peak Region.”

While she’s battled cancer on three separate occasions, Ruth said the disease did not get in her way.

“I’m fine and I’m having fun. For me, work has never been work,” Ruth said. “There were challenges to putting this book together, of course, chemo treatment and computers topping the list. I think the computer was more of an obstacle.”

— Video by Tom Hutton