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MASSACHUSETTS NURSE NEWSLETTER ::
March 2008
Nursing and labor advocate Rosemary Smith Dies
Nursing community mourns loss of longtime leader
The nursing community and the labor movement
in Massachusetts continue to mourn
the loss of one its great advocates and leaders
- Rosemary Smith, who died on Jan. 27 following
a short battle with cancer.
The MNA also celebrates the life of this
extraordinary woman, who for more than 30
years served as a leader and advocate for the
nursing community, a woman who greatly
impacted her profession through active and
effective participation in the MNA where she
worked for more than 26 years until just before
her death.
"Rosemary was an individual whose unbridled
energy, tenacious commitment and warm
hugs were woven into the very fabric of MNA.
She will be sorely missed but will always be
with us," said Julie Pinkham, RN, executive
director of the MNA.
At an MNA-hosted celebration of her long
career and immeasurable contributions to
nursing held last December, Smith was lauded
in citations from state Sen. Robert A. Antonioni,
on behalf of the Massachusetts State
Senate, as well as from U.S. Sen. John Kerry.
Born the daughter of Mary (Chapin) Bryne
and Thomas Bryne of Manchester, Conn. in
1925, Smith graduated as an RN from the
New England Deaconess Hospital School of
Nursing. She also received a bachelor of science
degree in labor relations from Fitchburg
State College.
She began her career at Fitchburg’s Burbank
Hospital in 1972, eventually becoming the head
nurse in the intensive care unit. During her
years at Burbank, Smith evolved from a skilled
staff nurse into a powerful union leader, serving
as a fierce advocate for the betterment of her
fellow nurses and the patients they cared for.
In 1982 she began her 26-year career with
the MNA as an associate director, leading
225 registered nurses at Burbank Hospital in
the longest strike in Massachusetts’ nursing
history, lasting more than six months. The
Burbank nurses won national attention and
praise from nurses across the nation for the
strike. The eventual settlement included a 25
percent pay increase over two years as well as
landmark contract language sought by the
nurses to provide them with better working
conditions and greater autonomy in administering
nursing care.
During her tenure with the MNA, Smith
participated in the growth of the organization
and its efforts to become one of the state’s most
powerful voices for health improvement and
quality patient care. Her long list of accomplishments
includes the support of nurses and
health professionals working in state-operated
facilities and agencies, and assisting those
caregivers in their continued efforts to create
working and practice conditions to improve
the care and well being of the state’s most vulnerable
residents, including the mentally ill,
developmentally disabled and veterans.
In recent years, she took on the role of director
of membership for the MNA, where she
helped to lead the organization to the highest
membership of its 100 year history.
Throughout her career, Smith was a board
member and supporter of the Massachusetts
Nurses Foundation, a non-profit organization
that raises money for nursing scholarships. A
tenacious fundraiser for the organization,
she personally raising thousands of dollars to
support the education of new entrants to the
profession she loved.
Nurse, advocate, leader, friend….Rosemary
Smith’s life touched us all.
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