Dr. Gertrude Barker; founded college nursing program; at 89

When the Depression dashed Gertrude F. Barker's hopes of attending college, she enrolled in a two-year nursing program at Salem Hospital and gained experience via 12-hour, labor-intensive days on the wards. When her husband later objected to her pursuit of a master's degree, she secured scholarships to cover her tuition and commuted daily by subway and bus from Swampscott to Boston University, returning each night to care for her two young children.

Later, even with her doctorate completed, her path through the nursing field hardly became easier when she undertook the founding of Lowell State College's first baccalaureate nursing program. But Dr. Barker wasn't one to be deterred by a few obstacles, said her daughter, Diane Carr of Lexington.

"She was just a person who tackled these different ventures, put 100 percent into whatever she did, and just kept going," she said. "I think it's part of the mentality and work ethic of people raised during the Depression."

Dr. Barker, founder and first dean of the College of Health Professionals at Lowell State College, now the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, died at her Lasell Village home in Newton on Tuesday of pneumonia. She was 89.

One of three children born to a Swampscott real estate agent and his wife, Dr. Barker graduated as valedictorian of Swampscott High School in 1934. After completing Salem Hospital's program in 1936, she began working as a registered nurse. She married Frederick P. Barker, a business owner, and they started a family. When one of her husband's business ventures floundered, the family relocated to San Diego for a change of pace, and Dr. Barker worked for two years in a clinic.

Her husband, a "staunch New Englander," didn't like the West Coast, however, and made a bargain with his wife: If she'd agree to move back to Massachusetts, he wouldn't stop her from taking classes at Boston University, Carr said.

For the next 12 years Dr. Barker balanced her family with her education at BU, where she earned a master's in rehabilitation nursing and, in 1967, a doctorate, but not before she battled the nursing department over the subject of her thesis and its conclusions.

"Her dissertation was on the self-esteem of unwed mothers, and her recommendation at the end was that birth control should be more readily available," her daughter said. "They asked her to restate her conclusions because they didn't want birth control mentioned, but she refused and finally found an adviser who approved it."

One of the few nurses in the nation to hold a doctorate in nursing, Dr. Barker was recruited to develop Lowell State College's undergraduate program.

"The first year I was a faculty of one, establishing a four-year curriculum for nursing, ordering equipment for the nursing laboratory, and finding clinical placements in hospitals and other medical facilities," Dr. Barker said during an interview with the Lasell Village Voice.

A few years later, Lowell State College merged with Lowell Technical Institute to become the University of Lowell, and Dr. Barker became a professor and dean of the College of Health Professions, where she implemented physical-assessment training for nurses, her daughter said.

Dr. Janice M. Stecchi began working for Dr. Barker in 1971 as a nursing instructor and remembered her as a leader "willing to tangle with just about anybody for what she believed in," she said.

"She knew how to maneuver within the administration, how to get things done, and she spoke her mind," said Dr. Stecchi, who became dean of the College of Heath Professions in 1991. "If you were someone she believed in, she would break down barriers for you."

Dr. Barker retired in 1981, when a neurological condition began to impact her health, her daughter said.

In 2000 Dr. Barker's husband died and she moved to Lasell Village, an independent living community on the campus of Lasell College in Newton. It is one of the few retirement-community programs in the country where senior citizens are required to attend classes alongside college students. Dr. Barker enjoyed it, telling the Associated Press in a 2000 interview that "being here makes me feel young again."

In addition to her daughter, Dr. Barker leaves a son, Frederick Jr. of Tewksbury; a sister, Marion Morse of Lynn; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Services will be private.