This bursary was established in 2005 in memorium for Monica Frith Green (1917 – 2004) and subsequently Jane Cooley.
Frances Jane Cooley, born November 6, 1930 in Toronto Ontario passed away peacefully at Guildford Seniors Village in Surrey, British Columbia on September 10, 2022. Jane grew up in Toronto spending many happy summers at the family cottage at Old Woman’s River on the Bruce Peninsula in southwestern Ontario. After graduating from the University of Toronto School of nursing in 1953 Jane relocated to Vancouver where she dedicated herself to helping others in the community as a public health nurse. It was during this period that Jane acted upon her love of travel and spent time in England, Europe and then Australia. In Australia she utilized her nursing skills for an extended stay before returning to British Columbia.
In her later years Jane kept busy with her many friends, and was always up for a game of bridge. Proud to show off Vancouver, she hosted countless visitors over the years, and played tour guide to all. Hosting guests in her suite overlooking English Bay during the Symphony of Fire was a much loved annual affair. Jane will be fondly remembered as kind and generous, and someone who very much saw the glass as half-full. She was often described as a “bowl of sunshine”.
Jane was predeceased by her parents Frank and Gladys (nee Middlebro) Cooley and her younger sister Margaret Ann “Judy” Cooley. Jane will be greatly missed by her cousins in Ontario and British Columbia, as well as her many friends across the country and around the world. As per Jane’s wishes a formal service will not be held. In the spirit of Jane’s interest in global humanitarian relief efforts donations to the Red Cross in her memory are welcomed.
Monica Green devoted her career to the advancement of public health nursing in British Columbia. Born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, in 1917, she moved to B.C. as a child. She graduated from the six-year, double-degree nursing program at the University of British Columbia, with her RN from Vancouver General Hospital, and her Bachelor of Arts (1939) and Bachelor of Applied Science in Nursing (1940). Soon after graduation, she joined the Provincial Public Health Nursing Service, working in the Okanagan and in Creston. After a leave to obtain a Master’s degree in Public Health Nursing from the University of Michigan, she returned to the B.C. PHN Service as a Consultant.
In 1948, she was promoted to Director. Under her gifted administrative skills, the nursing service expanded and she introduced, among other advances, a post-hospitalization home-care program, one of the first in Canada. Throughout her career, Mrs. Green was active in professional associations and was, among other positions, president of the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA). In 1967, she was honoured by her U.S. colleagues and became Honourary President of the American Public Health Association and in 1968 was made an APHA Fellow. I n 1975, she received the Award of Merit from the B.C. Branch of the CPHA for outstanding contributions to public health services and public health nursing. Following retirement, she wrote the thoroughly-researched and well-illustrated ‘Through the Years with Public Health Nursing: A History of Public Health Nursing in the Provincial Government Jurisdiction British Columbia’ (Ottawa: CPHA, 1984), now a classic reference book. In recognition of her writings, she was named an Honourary Life Member of the History of Nursing Professional Practice Group of the College of Registered Nurses of B.C. She died on December 28, 2004.