Stories

Henrietta F. Campbell Fund

Born in Lancaster, NY in 1905, Henrietta Rautenstrauch began her nursing career at St. Mary’s Hospital in Niagara Falls, NY where it is said she was the first nurse to use an x-ray machine. After a 17 year engagement to Lorne Thomas Campbell, the two moved to Hamilton where Mrs. Campbell found employment at the General Hospital and rose to the position of operating room supervisor.

Independent, generous and caring, Mrs. Campbell was active in her church as a member of the Catholic Women’s League. A neighbour, Karime Mafekh, recalled, “We met as neighbours in 1965 and adopted each other as family. I had arrived from Lebanon two years earlier and Henrietta was like a mother to me.”

Widowed in 1969, Henrietta Campbell remembered several organizations in her will and left the residue of her estate to the Foundation as a way of fulfilling her wish to help as many people as possible.

Excerpt from 1996-1997 Annual Report