Anyone who knows Claire Fagin knows that she is a force of nature. While serving as dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania from 1977 to 1992, she recruited and developed a faculty with an unmatched distinction: Every faculty member was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing.

Claire went on to break the academic glass ceiling. She was the first woman to serve as Chief Executive Officer of the University of Pennsylvania, and became the first woman to serve as Interim President of an Ivy League school when she held that post at Penn from 1993-94.

Confirming what so many knew who were fortunate enough to work with her, the American Academy of Nursing named her a Living Legend in 1998.

A psychiatric nurse by background, Claire is ever the consummate teacher and mentor to the nursing profession. In 2006, the University of Pennsylvania named its nursing building in her honor, Claire M. Fagin Hall. Along with my colleagues Cory Rieder and Rachael Watman, I attended the building’s dedication (see photo below). One by one, prominent nurses from around the country got up to describe Claire’s invaluable guidance in their careers.

Claire plays a remarkable game of chess with the profession, moving people from one position to another. If Claire says that this is where you should go … you go. She is always right. In fact, Claire suggested that Cory hire me because she thought the John A. Hartford Foundation was where I should be … and she was right. Thank you, Claire!

The Hartford Foundation has long appreciated Claire’s myriad talents. She launched the foundation’s program to prepare geriatric-expert nursing faculty, known as Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity. Cory recounts that Claire provided a vision for the Hartford Foundation’s investment in nursing to prepare geriatric specialists and generalists in the profession to meet the needs of older adults. She shaped the annual nursing leadership program and provided riveting interviews of nursing luminaries at the annual Mary Starke Harper distinguished lecture. To honor her contributions, the Hartford Foundation named its post-doctoral award the Claire Fagin Fellowship. How fitting.

On Nov. 29, Cory and I were thrilled to be in the audience when Claire received the Guggenheim Honor Cup, bestowed by the Penn Club of New York to the University of Pennsylvania’s most prestigious alumni. She stands in rarified air. The first name inscribed on the cup in 1889 was Charles Custis Harrison, former Provost of The University of Pennsylvania who, among his many accomplishments, established the School of Nursing.

How fitting, once again, that Dr. Harrison started what Claire made world class. So congratulations, Claire, from your Hartford family.