Constance Lois Seymour

Constance Lois Seymour February 7, 1933 to February 24, 2017 Miss Constance Lois Seymour of Hatboro, PA, passed away on Friday, February 24, 2017 at the age of 84. She was the daughter of Alfred Seymour and Marie Seymour Hattinger nee McGuckin. She was a graduate of Notre Dame de Namur Academy in Wyncote, Pennsylvania after which she attended Abington Memorial Hospital Dixon School of Nursing graduating in 1955. She was licensed as a registered nurse in Pennsylvania. Connie was a gifted student with a lifelong love of learning. She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing in 1960 from Villanova University College of Nursing, this was at a time when only two percent of registered nurses in the United States had Bachelor’s Degrees. She was the recipient of the Lulu Shepard Scholarship Award. After graduating from Villanova University she went on to study at Fordham University. In the 1960’s Connie entered the Religious of the Good Shepherd where she worked with and cared for young women trapped in situations of poverty and prostitution. Her name in religion was Sister Mary Louise de Marillac. She spent six years in the order before returning home and beginning her work at Abington Memorial Hospital, Abington, PA. Though she left the Religious of the Good Shepherd she continued throughout her life to embody the mission of the order to be a reconciling presence of Jesus the Good Shepherd by empowering lives, restoring rights and upholding the dignity of others. In 1971 she was appointed as Abington Memorial Hospital’s first Nurse Epidemiologist and charged with the development of a hospital wide infection prevention program. Connie was a pioneer in this new field of specialization and was trained at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. In 1972 a fledgling organization, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc., was begun by nurses working in the field of infection prevention throughout the US. Connie was a founding member of the first chapter of the Association in the Delaware Valley / Philadelphia region. Connie served as the Director of the Infection Prevention Program at Abington Memorial Hospital for eight years and after leaving Abington directed Infection Prevention programs at several hospitals in the Delaware Valley. Infection Prevention was her life’s work to which she devoted 38 years until her retirement in 2009. She was a mentor and friend to countless nurses entering this field. Her work, over 38 years, contributed to the safety of thousands of patients through prevention of hospital-acquired infection. She is survived by cousins of the Buczkowski, Cummings, McGuckin and Seymour, families, dear friends Dorothy Borton, Mary Brown, Gigi Dash, Rosanne Toth, Mary Tyson, her pet cat Willow, and members of her bridge club and the Abington Memorial Hospital Dixon School of Nursing Alumni. Relatives and friends are invited to her Visitation on Saturday June 3, 2017 from 9-10 AM at the Joseph J. McGoldrick Funeral Home and to her Mass of Christian Burial at 10:30 AM, which will take place at Immaculate Conception BVM Church, 602 West Avenue, Jenkintown, PA. Her Interment will be in George Washington Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the animal charity of your choice or Keystone Hospice, 8765 Stenton Ave., Wyndmoor, PA 19038.