Belton, Bell County
The School of Nursing was founded in 1904 by Dr. Arthur C. Scott and Dr. Raleigh White, Jr., as a part of their Temple Sanitarium to provide professional training for nurses. Initially a small local student body was instructed by the doctors and nursing superintendent at their facility, a former Catholic convent on South Fifth Street and Avenue F in Temple. Doctors Scott & White based the nursing school on the philosophy of Florence Nightingale, and created an atmosphere of training and education. The school expanded over the years, and changes took place in both the name of the school and the diversity of the curriculum. In 1946 nurses' training included a liberal arts education in conjunction with Temple Junior College. By 1949 the school was ranked among the nation's top programs in nursing. In 1968 administrators planned a two-year phasing out of the diploma program in nursing and the beginning of the baccalaureate nursing program at Mary Hardin-Baylor College. During its 66 years of existence as a diploma program, the Scott & White School of Nursing graduated 1,233 nurses who served prominently in health care worldwide. (1997)