Betty Obenshain Nursing Alumni Scholarship
Elizabeth Longacre Fell Obenshain was born (1923) on the Fell Farm in Calvert during the days of horse and mule-powered farming and no electricity. She graduated from Calvert Agricultural High School and University of Maryland, College Park, where she met her husband of 60 years, Dr. Wallace G. Obenshain. They raised five children together in Cecilton, where she was active at Zion United Methodist Church until her death in 2014.
Mrs. Obenshain served on the Cecil County Board of Education for 25 years, often as President. During her tenure, she was proud to usher in the long-overdue desegregation of Cecil County public schools. She helped establish a vocational school which is now called the Cecil County School of Technology. Maryland’s Governor asked Mrs. Obenshain to help start a brand new community college in Cecil County and so she became the first President of the Board of Trustees for Cecil College, established in 1968. During her 23 years as a trustee, she endeavored to establish a nursing school because she saw nursing as a noble profession that both served humanity and provided a community-based path toward independence for traditional and non-traditional students. We, her descendants, honor and applaud the smart, kind, hard working nurses of the future!Impact
The purpose of this scholarship is to support students in the Cecil College Nursing Program.