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Coleman D. Ross

Eunice Morde Doty School of Nursing Endowed Scholarship

The Eunice Morde Doty Endowed Scholarship was established in 2003 by Carol M. Ross, BA ’64, RN, CNS, in tribute to her mother who was also a nurse. It is awarded to students in the School of Nursing based on academic achievement and financial need. The School of Nursing provided the following about the honoree in an article, Opening the Doors of Opportunity, in the Summer 2004 Carolina Nursing magazine.

This year undergraduate nursing students will immediately benefit from the gift that Carol Morde Ross recently made to show her deep affection and respect for her mother, Eunice Morde Doty.

Carol wanted to create a lasting tribute to honor her mother's life with a scholarship that would enable nursing students to attend a baccalaureate degree program in the way her mother had wished to, but could not, in spite of having graduated as valedictorian of her high school class in 1936. Financial support for college was not an option for Eunice Doty during the Great Depression, yet through sheer determination she graduated from the diploma nursing program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston in 1939.

Through the scholarship, Carol says she has found a way to tell her mother's story – how strongly committed her mother was to the well-being of her family and to the principles of her profession – and to keep it alive into the future. She also tells us how Ms. Doty was a role-model during her 40-plus year nursing career and shares her mother’s values and ideals. Ms. Doty provided the foundation for learning and inquiry that shaped Carol's life to prepare her to become a psychiatric clinical nurse specialist. Now Carolina nursing student-recipients will be able to tell others how the Eunice Morde Doty scholarship enabled them to attain their dreams.

In 1994, Ms. Doty moved to the Glenaire Continuing Care Retirement Community in Cary, NC. Today, she resides in the assisted living unit, provided with care and comfort by devoted and compassionate nurses like herself. Carol indicated that it was a tremendous privilege to be able to present this scholarship honoring her mother during her mother's lifetime.

"The scholarship that I have established in my mother's name is to express my deep love for her and to say thanks for being my mom," says Carol. "It is also intended to acknowledge the wonderful contribution she has made to nursing and to tell the world that she was an outstanding nurse who truly cared about others."

Eunice Morde Doty Scholarship recipients by academic year --
2005-06: Tneshia Sweat
2006-07: Danielle Lingle
2007-08: Danielle Lingle
2008-09: Ryan Kerr
2009-10: Ryan Kerr
2010-11: Bethany Hartness
2011-12: Hamda Awan
2012-13: Beth Coble
2013-14: Beth Coble
2014-15: Ayan Musa
2015-16: Angela Johnson
2016-17: Tristan Jarrett
2017-18: Stephanie Betancur Grondona
2018-19: Stephanie Betancur Grondona
2019-20: Bonnie Sun
2020-21: Bonnie Sun, Nicole Ferrari
2021-22: Gabrielle DeRosa, Lizbeth Melgar-Alberto, Naara Mendez Rios, Jade Segreto

UNC published the following about one of the scholarship recipients in its graduate school diversity and student success program on September 22, 2020:

GRAD STUDENT FIRST FEATURED SCHOLAR – STEPHANIE BETANCUR

Stephanie Betancur, a doctoral student in nursing, was born in Medellin, Colombia. She is the recipient of a National Institutes of Health-funded T32 Predoctoral Training Grant and is an inpatient registered nurse in the UNC Bone Marrow Transplant unit. She received her bachelor’s degree in nursing with honors from UNC-Chapel Hill and was selected for the UNC Hillman Scholars Program in Nursing Innovation.

What made you choose UNC-Chapel Hill when deciding on a program/place to study?
I chose UNC-Chapel Hill for my doctoral program because of the extraordinary academic environment, the strong mentoring relationships, and the Hillman Scholars Program in Nursing Innovation. UNC-Chapel Hill is one of three schools in the nation to offer the Hillman Scholars Program in Nursing Innovation, which is a highly competitive program that supports individuals seeking a career as a nurse researcher. The program is designed to accelerate the time of completion of a Ph.D. degree to four years or less.

Tell us about your research.
My dissertation topic will explore the risk of occupational exposure of environmental services (EVS) workers to antineoplastic agents in the inpatient oncology setting. By identifying and understanding the risk of exposure to these agents, we can take the necessary safety precautions and implement strategies to decrease the incidence of exposure among EVS workers.

What does it mean to be a first-generation graduate student in your family?
My father left his home country with the sole purpose of providing his children with the opportunity for an education and a better life. His courage to leave behind all that was familiar taught me resilience and encouraged me to work hard and take advantage of every opportunity that came my way. Being a first-generation graduate student means that all the sacrifices made by my father, who raised me and my siblings on his own, have finally paid off.

What are you hoping to accomplish with your Carolina degree?
My long-term career goal is to become a cancer nurse scientist and eliminate cancer health disparities in ethnic minority populations. I plan to complete my Ph.D. program within three years, graduating in 2023. During the last year of the Ph.D. program, I intend to apply for a postdoctoral fellowship focused on eliminating health disparities. I will use my research training to build the substantive and methodological skills necessary to develop, test, and implement interventions to eliminate health disparities in cancer, specifically in the Latinx population.

Eunice Morde Doty’s published obituary from April 2010 follows.

Eunice More Doty, loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, died at Glenaire Retirement Community in Cary, North Carolina, on April 13, 2010, at the age of 92. Eunice was born in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, on May 13, 1913, the only child of Anna Louise Sherman and Clinton Habicht White. Her mother died when Eunice was 18 months old and her father remarried to Celia Elliott when Eunice was 11. She was pre-deceased by her half-brother Donald.

Following her high school graduation, Eunice entered the diploma nursing program at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, graduating as an RN in 1939. Later that year, she marri3ed her high school sweetheart, Elton W. Morde. Eunice and Elton moved from Massachusetts to Arlington, Virginia, in the early 1950s, where she continued her nursing career while raising three children.

Throughout her many years in Arlington, Eunice was an active member of Trinity Presbyterian Church, where she served as a leader of the junior high youth fellowship, Deacon, Elder, and Chair of the Pastoral Nominating Committee. She was also an excellent writer and co-authored a 90-page History of Trinity Church. A talented seamstress, Eunice’s needlepoint pieces are still in use at Trinity.

Following Elton’s death in 1965, Eunice spent six months traveling the world with Chapman’s College “World Campus Afloat” program aboard the SS Ryndam, serving as the ship’s nurse to crew, faculty, and students. Then in 1969, Eunice met and married her second husband, Harry O. Doty and lovingly raised Harry’s two young daughters as her own. In later years, Eunice served as a board member of the Visiting Nurse Association of Northern Virginia and continued using her nursing skills when needed by family and friends. One of her proudest nursing moments when she delivered a neighbor’s baby, born minutes before the ambulance arrived. Eunice was an avid gardener and golfer and a charter member of the International Golf and Country Club in Fairfax, Virginia, where she won many tournaments.

Eunice and Harry moved to Glenaire Retirement Community in 1994. Shortly thereafter, she begam to struggle with vascular dementia and needed the care of her fellow nurses. Her family is extremely grateful for the excellent care she received while at Glenaire.

Eunice had enough love to share with everyone and was dearly loved by family members, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. She will be deeply missed by many, including her husband Harry, her son David Morde and wife Diana (Cary), daughter Carol Morde Ross and husband Coleman Ross (Chapel Hill), son Richard Morde and wife Jeanne (Kilmarnock, Virginia), and step-daughters Elissa Doty Hellgeth and husband Matthew Hellgeth (Raleigh) and Joy Doty Pechan and husband Marc Pechan (Crozier, Virginia). She also leaves 14 grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren, five nieces and a nephew.

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