Bill Hard

“I established the scholarship, first in honor of and then in memory of, my wife for many reasons. As a Foundation Board member I wanted to do something that would be impactful over time on the lives of the College’s students. I wanted to focus on an area of societal need and very quickly realized that I could meet that need and honor my wife by establishing a nursing scholarship in her name. Pam was trained as a nurse and practiced her profession for 10 years, in both a hospital and private practice setting, before she decided to stay home and be a full time mom to our 3 children. While she was practicing she would come home and tell these wonderful stories about her patients. I could just feel how much joy she derived from helping people and, having met some of her patients, learned how she had positively affected them. After she became a full time mom she remained the medical resource for family and friends; I think they called her before they called their doctor!

We all know how much impact a good nurse can have on a patient’s outcome. When I visited the College’s nurse training facility, I was greatly impressed by the eagerness to learn of the students who were there, on a holiday no less. When I asked the program head why they were there when they did not have to be, she replied that they just want to learn to be better nurses. If this scholarship permits more people to receive that training and go on to become the health care professionals our society so desperately needs, then it will have fulfilled its purpose a hundredfold. As an aside, it also made a great birthday present for my wife- she was thrilled to think that we are helping to train the next generation of a profession she so dearly loved." – William Hard, Montgomery College Foundation Board Member.