School of Nursing:
Building's Name
Honors Philanthropist,
Former Trustee

The Anne M. Pinkard Building, scheduled for completion in November, will open its doors to students in January.

The university's board of trustees voted to honor Pinkard in recognition of her long history of service to and support of the university and The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System. She was an active university trustee from 1973 to 1991 and chaired the board's Buildings and Grounds Committee from 1974 to 1990. She remains an emerita member of the university board today. In 1977, she became the first woman elected as a full member of the hospital's board, after previously serving as a trustee ex officio in her role as president of the Johns Hopkins Women's Board.

Pinkard is also president and director of the Robert G. and Anne Merrick Foundation and the Jacob and Annita France Foundation, which jointly awarded $3 million toward construction of the nursing building. The foundations have committed more than $12 million to Johns Hopkins since 1984, in support of the School of Nursing, the restoration of Homewood House, the Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Athletic Center renovations, a Mount Vernon Square townhouse project at the Peabody Institute, School of Public Health renovations and the cancer clinical care building now under construction.

Connections to Hopkins run deep in Pinkard's family. Her father, Robert G. Merrick Sr., received an undergraduate and a doctoral degree from Hopkins and served as a university trustee from 1953 to 1968. Her oldest son, Walter D. Pinkard Jr., is a trustee of both the university and of Johns Hopkins Medicine. He chairs the university trustees' Buildings and Grounds Committee, once headed by his mother.

"The leadership and loyal dedication of Nan Pinkard and her family have helped ensure a healthy future for Johns Hopkins," said university President William R. Brody. "It is fitting that the new School of Nursing building be named after Nan; it is a place that will foster compassion, service and a love for learning, all values I know Nan holds dear."

Built at the corner of Wolfe and McElderry streets in East Baltimore, directly across from the hospital main entrance and the School of Public Health, the Pinkard Building will for the first time bring together in one space virtually all the teaching and research activities of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. The school has previously had offices and classrooms located in six buildings around the campus. The Pinkard Building will also house the Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing and the Center for Nursing Research.

"I am proud to have my name associated with a School of Nursing that values the quality of life of the patient above all else," Pinkard said. "The school's rich history and tradition is evidence that this new building will continue to nourish and support many expert nurses in the years to come."

The five-story building includes classrooms and lecture halls equipped for distance learning, a 230-seat auditorium, research space with state-of-the-art laboratories and a garden courtyard. The west side of the building bears the university seal and logo. The Baltimore architecture firm Ayers/Saint/Gross designed the building, which is being built by Barton Malow Co.

The total cost of the building is $17.2 million, three-quarters of which has come from private contributions as part of the $900 million Johns Hopkins Initiative campaign.

"I am grateful for the generosity and support of Nan Pinkard," said Sue K. Donaldson, dean of the School of Nursing. "She has made an investment in the future of health care that will have a positive effect on the lives of countless people. In the fine tradition of Hopkins nursing, the students who learn in this new building will go on to make valuable contributions in hospital units, community clinics, research laboratories, private homes--anywhere there is a need for quality health care."

A formal dedication ceremony will take place on Thursday, June 11, 1998.