Gwendolyn Grant Mellon

An article in Time Magazine changed Gwendolyn Grant Mellon’s life. The story was about Dr. Albert Schweitzer, a man who’d given up everything to treat thousands of Africans in dire need of health care. Inspired by his sacrifice, she and her husband quickly gave up their life in Arizona, committing themselves to what Schweitzer called a “reverence for life” and setting out to heal the sick.

While her husband earned a medical degree, Mellon prepared herself to become a hospital administrator and eventually oversaw construction of a hospital in Haiti. In 1956, the two opened the doors of a 75-bed hospital, serving thousands of people who previously had been without any medical care in the Artibonite River Valley. The couple named their hospital, the Hopital Albert Schweitzer, in honor of the man who was their inspiration.

A Geneva, N.Y. native and graduate of Smith College, Gwendolyn Grant Mellon was the heart of the enterprise, acting as engineer, translator and director of personnel among other duties. Over time, the hospital grew into a modern medical center and made an unmistakable impact on Haitians, immunizing 95 percent of children, eliminating tetanus and measles, and drilling more than 100 fresh water wells.

Mellon continued to serve the people of the Artibonite River Valley even after her husband’s death in 1989. After receiving the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 2000, Mellon died.

BLACKWELL RECIPIENTS

• January 22, 2015
  Dr. Janet L. Yellen

• November 10, 2013
  The Most Reverend Doctor Katharine Jefferts Schori

• October 27, 2011
  Eunice Kennedy Shriver

• April 23, 2009
  Rabbi Sally J. Priesand

• April 24, 2008
  Dr. Wangari Maathai Sc.D.'94, P '94, P '96

• April 27, 2007
  Dr. Priscilla A. Schaffer '64, Sc.D. '94

• September 7, 2004
  Bishop Barbara Clementine Harris

• September 9, 2003
  Loretta C. Ford

• September 4, 2001
  Madeleine K. Albright

• May 15, 1998
  Billie Jean King

• February 10, 1996
  Wilma Mankiller

• September 23, 1993
  Barbara Jordan

• September 27, 1991
  Margaret Chase Smith

• February 22, 1991
  Dr. Antonia C. Novello

• February 19, 1988
  Barbara Aronstein Black

• October 9, 1985
  Cicely Saunders

• March 8, 1985
  Sandra Day O’Connor

• February 11, 1984
  Hannah Holborn Gray

• February 26, 1982
  Agnes George de Mille

• February 15, 1980
  Mary Douglas Leakey

• September 30, 1977
  Mary S. Calderone

• October 3, 1975
  Antonia Brico

• Janurary 23, 1974
  Frances Keller Harding

• May 28, 1973
  Judith Graham Pool

• June 8, 1972
  Marian Anderson

• April 10, 1972
  Mary Lasker

• June 13, 1971
  Mina Rees

• June 14, 1970
  Helen Brooke Taussig

• June 15, 1969
  Georgiana Sibley

• June 16, 1968
  Constance Baker Motley

• September 8, 1967
  Catharine Macfarlane

• July 10, 1966
  Fe del Mundo

• June 13, 1965
  Annette LeMeitour-Kaplun

• June 14, 1964
  Margaret Mead

• June 9, 1963
  Marty Mann

• June 10, 1962
  Frances Perkins

• June 18,1961
  Leona Baumgartner

• June 12, 1960
  Miki Sawada

• June 14, 1959
  Elisabeth Luce Moore

• September 27, 1958
  Gwendolyn Grant Mellon