Highlighting Pennsylvania Nurses
Lucie Kelly:
A Trailblazer in Nursing
by Gale Robinson-Smith, PhD, RN
Associate Professor, Villanova University
L
ucie Stirm Kelly, former president of the Pennsylvania State Nurses Association (PNA at
the time) and retired nurse educator and administrator, received the Legacy Laureate
Award of the University of Pittsburgh in September 2013. The prestigious Legacy Laureate program is grounded in the principle that alumni who have been successful in their
professions are the greatest role models. Dr. Kelly holds six honorary doctorates from
prominent universities across the country and is considered 1 of the 50 most influential
nurses in the United States. As an exemplary role model, her remarkable career has encompassed nursing activities in the U.S. and around the globe. Today, she continues to
participate in health promotion activities in her continuing care retirement community in
Charlottesville, VA.
Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Dr. Lucie Stirm Kelly immigrated with her mother to Pittsburgh in 1929, the day the stock
market crashed. Sponsored by a distant cousin, her father had arrived in the U.S. a few months earlier for work. An
important wish of Lucie’s parents was that she would get an education ... and “they expected A’s.”
Dr. Kelly received several scholarships to the University of Pittsburgh and, after her sophomore year, entered the
School of Nursing as a cadet nurse. She earned her BSN and a Master of Letters from the School of Nursing in 1956. She
Winter 2014 Pennsylvania Nurse 8