Sister Mary Justine Sabourin gathered a wonderful history of Mercy College and authored ‘Risk & Hope – An Early History of Mercy College of Detroit 1941-1966 (1999, University of Detroit Mercy Press.) She writes of the fortitude of vision and the careful steps of Mother Mary Carmelita Manning in combining resources of six Michigan hospitals to establish one of the first central schools of nursing in Michigan. Selected hospitals in Battle Creek, Jackson, Pontiac and Detroit and two hospitals in Ann Arbor with affiliated nursing schools linked in the goal to educate nurses to serve southeastern Michigan. Sister Justine writes that Mercy College of Nursing was incorporated by the State of Michigan as a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and was based in a multi-storied building on East Grand Boulevard in Detroit close to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital.
The story of the transition from Mercy School of Nursing to Mercy College of Detroit and the College’s bold move to the site on Outer Drive makes for exciting chapters in an unfolding story. But an essential point is that Mercy School of Nursing and its development into Mercy College and the McAuley School of Nursing has braided its beauty into the fabric of Detroit and made an indelible mark in the history of Detroit’s institutions of higher education. What immense pride graduates of Mercy and McAuley School of Nursing must experience having the knowledge of the valuable contribution of their alma mater in the community.
Now, as the College of Health Professions and the McAuley School of Nursing at University of Detroit Mercy, remembrances of Mercy College remain in faculty members that earned their degrees at Mercy College or taught at Mercy College — or both. They continue the remembrances of Mercy as they educate new generations of health care professionals for the future.