Florida-Stanford Trip with Betsy/Hong Van, June 2013

In June of 2013 Marguerite made a 10-day trip for two purposes. First, to attend the annual meeting of APIC (Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and second, to attend the Stanford Graduation in Palo Alto, California. She started at her sister Betsy's house in Orlando and then the two of them drove to Fort Lauderdale for four days. She then returned to Orlando for a short visit with Betsy and Brent and their son Grant's family. En route home, she went to the Stanford graduation for a mentee, Hong Van Pham.

APIC

This summer marked the 40th anniversary of Marguerite's professional association, APIC (the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology). Marguerite has also been a member of APIC for 40 years. She was invited to be one of the "Dynamic Dozen" speakers at the opening keynote session. There were three speakers for each of the four decades. Marguerite was one of the three representing the Decade of the 80s.

Barbara Soule, Julie Gerberding, and Marguerite

Barbara Soule was the editor of the first APIC Curriculum in 1983. Marguerite was Associate Editor and Crawford was Technical Editor. It took them three years to write this 1000 page book, without the help of computers! Each page was typed and changes were made with the original "cut and paste" method using scissors and scotch tape! The APIC Curriculum became the APIC Text a few years later and has gone through several editions. This book is used throughout the world as an important reference for guidance about the profession.

Dr. Julie Gerberding was on the faculty at the University of California San Francisco during the 1980s before she joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where she eventually became the Director. She is now President of Merck's Vaccine Division. Julie became a national expert on HIV and she and Marguerite worked closely together during the decade of the 1980s to develop strategies to reduce risks to health care workers of contracting HIV, Hepatitis B, and other bloodborne pathogens through needlestick injuries and blood exposures.

Marguerite and her colleague, Patricia Lynch, developed the Body Substance Isolation system in the early 1980s and first published it in the American Journal of Nursing in 1984. Over the next 13 years, the BSI system was widely adopted and was incorporated by the CDC into "Standard Precautions" to reduce risks for transmission of infectious agents to both patients and health care workers. This approach is now the standard of practice all over the world.

APIC Leaders

A group of APIC Leaders: Candy Friedman, recipient of the Carole DeMille Award (Marguerite received the award in 1984); Carla Alvarado, Barbara Russell, Barbara Soule, Denise Murphy, and Marguerite are members of the Dynamic Dozen.

Fort Lauderdale Sightseeing

While in Fort Lauderdale, Marguerite and Betsy did some sightseeing. Their first stop was the Stranahan House in the old part of the city. The house was built in 1901 by Frank Stranahan, father of Fort Lauderdale, and his wife Ivy who was the area's first school teacher. The home is now a museum.

Bonnet House

The Bonnet House was designed by Frederic Clay Bartlett, an American artist from Chicago. Construction began in 1920 and continued for more than 20 years. After his wife Helen died in 1925, Frederic married the ex-wife of Eli Lilly. He and Evelyn (who was also an artist) lived there until his death in 1953, and she continued to winter there until her death in 1997 at over 100 years of age. The home was given to the state of Florida in 1983 with the provision she could continue to use it until her death -- they had to wait a long time!! In a garage on the grounds is a 1941 pristine Cadillac with really classy wheels that George would have enjoyed driving!! The home and 35 acres are now a museum.

Betsy's Grandchildren

After the APIC conference we returned to Orlando. Part of the time Marguerite and Betsy took care of two of Betsy's five grandchildren, Cary (almost 5) and Cannon ( 1 1/2) while their parents, Grant and Liz, got ready for a vacation at the beach. We went to Cary's karate lesson a couple of times and enjoyed playing with the kids. Betsy's house has TWO playrooms for the grandchildren where they can build with blocks, play with games, draw, paint, and enjoy lots of toys. The photo on left is Cary, in the middle is Cannon, and on the right is Cary, Cannon, and their uncle Keith.

Ladies Lunch

While in Orlando we took the day off to go shop in the little town of Mount Dora. We went with Betsy's friend Sandy and her sister-in-law Anne from Australia. Here we are having a "ladies lunch" at the Windsor Tea Room. Photo, left to right: Anne, Betsy, Sandy, Marguerite

Stanford Graduation

Marguerite left Orlando for San Jose on Saturday morning, June 15, to attend the Stanford University Graduation. John and Barbara Warner kindly provided a place to stay. Marguerite's mentee, Hong Van Pham, was graduating from Stanford. Hong Van graduated from The Preuss School in La Jolla in 2009 at the top of her class. She was given a "full ride" scholarship to Stanford and also a Gates Millennium Scholarship. Marguerite and Hong Van bonded during her Senior year at Preuss and have stayed in close touch since then. The graduation was a wonderful event! Hong Van's mother and grandmother also attended .

The photo on the left is of Marguerite, Hong Van, her mother Vi, and her grandmother at a reception for graduating students at the President's home. The home was built by Herbert Hoover in 1919-1920 and given to Stanford University in 1945. The photo in the middle is of the family with the Stanford President and his wife. The photo on the right is of Hong Van and her boyfriend, Simon Ye, a 2012 graduate of Stanford who now works for Google in the "Google glass" division (the funny looking thing on his head).

More Stanford Graduation

We took lots of photos at the Graduation! The last one is of Marguerite and Hong Van with the gift of a pair of antique door knobs -- Marguerite wrote: