Jean Jolley von Hoffman’s love for nursing began as a young girl growing up on a farm in Tuscola, Illinois. She had an early passion for nurturing animals that evolved into a lifetime of caring for people in her community and far beyond.
Eager to work with patients as soon as possible after graduating from high school, Jean enrolled in Barnes Hospital School of Nursing in St. Louis, a legacy school of Barnes-Jewish College Goldfard School of Nursing.
“After three weeks you were assigned in your uniform on the floor. That appealed to me,” says Jean, who graduated from Barnes in 1964. “That was one of the strengths of my nursing education…it’s not just the amount of clinical time we got but the depth of the clinical time we got.”
Named a Goldfarb Distinguished Alumni in 2020, Jean, who now lives in Garland, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, has led a remarkable career spanning more than 50 years. She has been a hospital and school nurse, educator and administrator, and even helped a large Dallas-area school system develop its electronic health records system. As a volunteer, Jean has assisted with flood and tornado cleanup in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, and served on numerous missions to help people in need in Panama and Guatemala.
She credits her nursing education for her rewarding career, gives regularly to Goldfarb School of Nursing and has named the school as a beneficiary in her will.
“I value my nursing education immensely and I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” says Jean who wants to help students stay in school. “It’s so much more expensive now than it was for me. Although my contributions aren’t large, it’s the total of all the small gifts that can make a difference. There’s also that feel-good thing within you. It’s the joy of giving.”
Every gift to the Foundation, no matter the size, makes a difference. Contact Joan Cheaney, CFRE, at 314-286-0704 or PlannedGiving@BJC.org to find the right gift type to meet your charitable goals.