The 2023 Dr. George T. & Marvel Van Rooy Memorial Nursing Scholarship was presented to Amelie McCloud and Caitlynn Ellison by Board Member Darla Hegge.
The Dr. George T. and Marvel Van Rooy Memorial Nursing Scholarship is awarded to a graduate of Lincoln High School who is enrolled in a nursing program full time and has a GPA of B or above.
George Van Rooy was born in Stephens Point, Wisconsin, and raised in Minneapolis. He enjoyed spending his summers with his grandparents in Stephens Point as he grew up. He graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1942 and did his internship in Detroit, Michigan. He then served in World War II as an Army physician from 1943 to 1946, where he walked across India to retrieve wounded soldiers.
After the war, he accepted a position to practice medicine in Thief River Falls, where he met his wife. In 1949, he married Marvel Grovum and they moved to Dallas for an internal medicine residency at Methodist Hospital. In 1950, they returned to Thief River Falls. After a brief tenure at the Bratrud Clinic, George joined the Falls Clinic PA in Thief River Falls with doctors William Feigel and Neil Nickerson.
He enjoyed spending time with his patients and making house calls, often without charge. He worked at the Falls Clinic until his retirement in 1977. After his retirement, George and his wife divided their time between Minnesota and Arizona.
He enjoyed his family, ham radio, geology, jewelry making, computers, researching the civil war, hobby farming, reading, Marlene Dietrich, art, poetry, proper grammar, dining out, Wednesday nights with the guys, and chocolate--especially his wife’s chocolate cake with nuts in the frosting.
He loved to tell stories, often enchanting his friends and family with tales of his life, including anecdotes from his time in the war, lively accounts of his antics with his friends, and recollections such as how he’d swim across Lake Calhoun for lunch when he was in high school.
He was generous, funny, intelligent, entertaining, interesting and loved tremendously by his friends and family.
This scholarship was established in his memory.