Chaffee grad receives 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award

Ruth Buckhannon Welborn

CHAFFEE, Mo. — Ruth Buckhannon Welborn, a graduate of Chaffee High School, recently received the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award from Barnes-Jewish College Alumni Association in St. Louis, recognizing her dedication to the nursing profession, education and community service.

Welborn earned her diploma of nursing at what was then the Jewish Hospital College of Nursing in St. Louis, now the Barnes-Jewish College Goldfarb School of Nursing. She earned her registered nurse, bachelor’s and master’s degrees at University of Texas and her doctorate from Texas A&M.

In 1975, she was the first female faculty member hired by the School of Health Professions at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. She has helped redesign health care services at hospitals in Cambodia, the Republic of Georgia and Kazakhstan.

She is dean of Health Professions at Texas State University in San Marcos.

Welborn is the second of four daughters of the late W.J. and Ruth Buckhannon of Chaffee. She and her three sisters continue their support of the nursing profession with their annual Ruth A. Buckhannon Memorial R.N. Scholarship, given in memory of their mother.