Grayce McVeigh Sills (Class of 2008)
Grayce McVeigh Sills attended Ohio University for two years, but a summer program at Rockland State Mental Hospital in New York resulted in her deciding to become a nurse. She graduated from Rockland State Hospital School of Nursing and attended Teachers College, Columbia University, before obtaining her bachelor's degree from the University of Dayton, and a master's and doctorate in sociology from The Ohio State University.
Sills joined The Ohio State University nursing faculty in 1964 and became an Emeritus Professor in 1993 upon retirement. During her tenure at OSU she developed the graduate-level clinical nurse specialist program in psychiatry, helped develop the doctoral program in nursing, was Director of the Advanced Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Program, Chair of the Department of Family and Community Nursing, Director of Graduate Studies, and Acting Dean. She also helped the School of Nursing achieve independent status as a college within the university.
Sills has been an international consultant for community-based mental health nursing, as well as a visiting professor at Case Western Reserve University, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing and Fairfield University School of Nursing. She was president and journal editor of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association and is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, recognized as a Living Legend in 1999. She chaired the Study Committee on Mental Health Services for Ohio and, in 1986, was chosen as a Woman of Achievement by the Columbus YWCA. As a past chair of the OSU Hospitals Board of Trustees, she was instrumental in gaining board support for magnet hospital status, achieved in 2005. She has had the rare distinction of receiving three awards from OSU: a Distinguished Teaching Award, a Distinguished Service Award and an honorary doctorate in public service. Sills has also received honorary doctorates from Indiana University and Fairfield University, in Connecticut.
Sills was honored as a Legend in 2008.