Happy Birthday, Bertha Rolfe!
Bertha Rolfe, who received her B.S. degree in pharmacy in 1947, was ahead of her time.
The field was dominated by men at the time. But, as one admirer says, “Because of the war, they were admitting more women than before and after the war. Fewer women (had been) admitted because they felt women would marry and become full-time mothers.”
According to Dean Emeritus Warren E. Weaver’s history of the school, the first woman in the School of Pharmacy graduated in 1920. But – other than around the World War II years – less than 10 percent of students were women until the late 1950s.
Beginning in 1948, Rolfe also made her mark as a lab instructor for the school for nine years. In the 1960s, she was a volunteer hospital pharmacist at McGuire General Veterans Hospital, and in 1971 she rejoined the School of Pharmacy faculty for another 10 years.
Because of Bertha Rolfe’s generosity, loyalty and decades-long dedication to the School of Pharmacy and the university – and because of her volunteer work with and support of VCU Massey Cancer Center, MCV Foundation and the School of Pharmacy – all three groups are throwing her a birthday party Aug. 18.
If you see her around campus – and you probably will sometime! — please wish her well.
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