Class of 1945
Patricia Book first entered Clarkson on September 8, 1942, as an honors graduate of the Harlan (Iowa) High School where she was a member of the debate team, the Girls Sextette and the National Tehspian Society. She served as the senior class vice-president and, in September, 1941, was chosen Homecoming Queen. In her Clarkson application, writtein in the Spring of 1942, Book wrote,
"I have always liked school and dread thinking of ever being graduated...I have always wanted to become a nurse and have taken all the subjects in high school to preapre me for being one. I like people and like to help them. I've done a lot of studying of nursing from books and am convinced I'd like it"
Book, an Episcopalian, chose Clarkson because "all the nurses and doctors I've asked recommended Clarkson as the school that turned out the very good nurses"
Book trained at the 26th Street and Dewey Avenue hospital (the old Lord Lister building), lived in all three of its associated nurses' homes (although a senior when the new Nurses' home opened, she did not live there), and graduated on September 11, 1945.
Oderkirk, Wendell (1988). Learning to Care: A century of nursing education Bishop Clarkson College, 1888-1988.