Marion Ricker Memorial Scholarship in Nursing
Marion Torrance Ricker (1909 - 1991)
Marion Ricker was active as a nurse and as a mother, and contributed also to the communities of Nanaimo and Victoria in many ways, especially in the area of education. Her involvements in this field spanned more than 30 years.
Marion was born Marion Torrance Cardwell in Rutheglen, Scotland, and was the oldest of three girls. When she was an infant, her parents moved to Vancouver, B.C. She attended elementary school and John Oliver High School in Vancouver, and then received a nursing degree from the University of British Columbia in 1931. She worked as a public health nurse in the Chilliwack municipality until she married William Edwin Ricker in 1935. During the next 15 years she lived with her husband in Cultus Lake (B.C.), Vancouver, and in
Bloomington, Indiana. She also became involved in community organizations, but it was when her family moved to Nanaimo in 1950 that Marion really became an active force in her community. She became a member of the Nanaimo School Board, and in a few years accepted a position as chair of the board. She also became a member of the B.C. School Trustees Association and stayed to become President of that group; moreover, she also served as president for the National School Trustees Association. As well, she was a member of the Senate of the University of Victoria, contributed to the United Way and the Canadian Federation of University Women, was a life member of the local Council of Women, and was an active member—and staunch supporter—of the Victorian Order of Nurses (V.O.N) when she lived in Nanaimo from 1950 to 1991. During this time she helped her four sons through school and university, and went on camping trips each summer to places like Banff and Yellowstone.
Marion was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal in 1935, was Nanaimo's Woman of the Year in 1957, and received the University of Victoria Jubilee Medallion in 1978.
In the last years of her life, Marion battled with Parkinson's disease, but still enjoyed travelling with her husband after his retirement in 1973. They traveled by car to eastern Canada and through the United States, visited Ireland and Holland, went on a Mediterranean cruise and a "Total Eclipse Cruise" though the Panama Canal, and undertook a Garden Tour of Britain.