Lillian & Victor Kelmenson memorial (by their children)
Lillian Kelmenson obtained a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s degree in health administration. After a career in clinical nursing and nursing administration, Lillian joined OCC in 1968 as the Associate Director of Allied Health within the Applied Sciences and Arts Division to expand the nursing program. During her almost two and a half decades at OCC she also created multiple new health profession and medical technology curriculums. Many of the programs created during her tenure at OCC are still offered. She created these programs at OCC to provide more opportunities for students, especially for women returning to the work force. She was responsible for program design; arranging hospital affiliations; grant writing and application; recruiting faculty and selecting students. Most of the students had no marketable profession and struggled to support themselves and their families due to factors such as divorce, death of a spouse, limited English fluency, prior incarceration etc. Many were older women, and some were on public assistance to make ends meet.
Her outstanding success rate at raising students, especially women, out of poverty to successful careers in the health professions brought her and OCC to the attention of both the state and federal governments. Even in retirement, Mrs. Kelmenson strove to help students, from personally tutoring immigrants in medical terminology to paying for textbooks out of her own pocket. Throughout her lifetime, she was always a strong advocate for the education and equality of women, but the scholarships are open to all regardless of age or gender.
When Lillian died in 1998, her husband Victor Kelmenson (a pulmonary physician), and their three children wanted to honor her memory by creating a scholarship fund for students such as those she had always personally championed and supported. Victor passed away in 2006, and their children added his name to the scholarship as a reflection of the pride he always took in his wife’s accomplishments.
In addition to honoring the memory of their parents, the children wanted to continue the tradition in their family of each generation encouraging the education of the next. Lillian and Victor’s children have ensured this legacy by financially supporting the college education of their own children. This has allowed Lillian and Victor’s grandchildren to enter their working lives without the crushing burden of debt that handicaps so many college graduate, especially those who obtain degrees in the health professions. In addition, the children wanted to “pay forward” this encouragement and financial support to others beyond the family itself, just as their parents did. This is the spirit and motivation behind the Lillian and Victor Kelmenson Memorial Scholarships, both the endowed and the non-endowed scholarship.