Nancy Marie Dugger was born in Sayre, OK, on December 1, 1920. She attended the School of Nursing at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Oklahoma City, a high intensity residency program noted for producing highly skilled and disciplined nurses. Nancy financed her education through a loan from an aunt, which she paid off quickly after beginning work and forever appreciated.
Upon graduation in 1942, she moved to Portland, OR where she worked and saved for more education. She attended the University of Washington form 1945-1948 where she received a degree in Chemistry and met her future husband, Al Morgenthaler, a chemical engineer. They married and moved to Richland in 1948 and lived there the remainder of their lives.
Nancy worked as a RN at Kadlec Hospital from the 1940s through the 1960s. Eventually she helped start the Nursing program at Columbia Basin College, where she taught for many years. Many of her students remember her as their most demanding and best teacher. The Nancy D. Morgenthaler Endowed Nursing Scholarship is dedicated to serious, strong, intelligent, and compassionate nursing students who love people and our Creator as they give us hope!