MCO professor put nurse courses online
1/23/2004Mary Beth Hayward, 65, an associate professor at the Medical College of Ohio School of Nursing who pioneered the use of online teaching at the school, died Tuesday in Toledo Hospital.
She suffered a heart attack and died from complications following open-heart surgery, said her husband, John.
Mrs. Hayward was teaching three online courses at MCO and was president of the Northwest Ohio Nurses Association and secretary of the board of directors of the Ohio Nurses Association. She received 18 awards for excellence in teaching in her career.
“She was among the earliest faculty members hired at the [MCO] School of Nursing,” Mr. Hayward said. “She loved teaching and, even in later years, when we would discuss retirement, she always made it clear that she wanted to continue teaching.”
During her 30 years at MCO, Mrs. Hayward educated thousands of nurses, said Dr. Jeri Milstead, dean of the school of nursing. “Mary Beth was a very small woman, as far as physically,” Dr. Milstead said. “And she had a powerful, gigantic influence on people.”
Ms. Hayward was born in Grand Rapids, Mich., and received her bachelor s degree from St. Mary s College in Notre Dame, Ind., and her master of science in nursing from Catholic University of America in Washington.
In 1962, Ms. Hayward began her career as an instructor at the Georgetown University School of Nursing in Washington. That same year she married John Hayward, a Toledo lawyer. The couple moved to Toledo in 1966, and Mrs. Hayward became an instructor in advanced medical-surgical and critical-care nursing at the former Mercy School of Nursing. She joined MCO in 1974.
“Students loved her because she made difficult concepts understandable,” Dr. Milstead said. “She would teach advanced nursing, critical care, or leadership and management, and she had done all of those things, so she actually had good, solid experience.”
In 1998, Mrs. Hayward created the college s first online course, which was designed to attract and teach students who lived outside the Toledo area.
Mrs. Hayward was president of the Ohio League for Nursing from 2000 to 2003, and a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the International Honor Society of Nursing. She was a former president and current board member of the Kidney Foundation of Northwest Ohio.
Surviving are her husband, John; daughters, Beth Bonifas and Mary Bridget Kahle; sons, John Peter, Thomas, and Ethan; brother, William Ludwig, and eight grandchildren.
The body was donated to MCO. A memorial Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Monday at Corpus Christi University Parish on Dorr Street. The family suggests tributes to Kidney Foundation of N.W. Ohio, Catholic Foundation of the Diocese of Toledo, or a charity of the donor s choice.