Nancy Skogsbergh: ‘I just love Coe College’
Few people
can claim to be as Coe-to-the-core as Nancy Skogsbergh ’53. The connection started young. As a seventh-grader, she hung out in Hickock Hall and greeted the president by name. As years passed, she would fire the starting gun for the Lamb-Kohawk cross country meet and used her Kohawk experience to become a top nursing educator in Eastern Iowa.
For eight decades, there has been an unbreakable bond between Nancy and Coe. The college provided a livelihood for her family growing up, a valuable education and stories that have stuck with her through all the years.
Her history with Coe, though, begins with her father — Harris Lamb ’27, a Coe legend in his own right. Harris was a standout athlete during his days as a student, earning an induction into the Coe Athletic Hall of Fame as a charter member. He returned to campus later as a coach, co-athletic director with his brother, Willis, and eventually was Coe’s first alumni director, bringing Coe coast-to-coast. He’s fondly remembered by many as never forgetting a name.
It’s clear Nancy, now 91, has fond memories of her father as well because he was the instigator in her Kohawk story. Harris moved his family from Ada, Ohio, and Ohio Northern University to work at Coe when Nancy was 12. She had heard his stories and passion for Coe and quickly developed an affinity of her own as she became familiar with campus.
“I knew most everybody on campus — faculty, coaches, even the president,” Nancy recalled. “I was comfortable.”
With her mother ailing and her familiarity with the area, choosing where to go to college was simple — she was confident in Coe. Nancy could even walk to campus from their home.
As she started as a student, many service members were also pursuing their degrees after serving in World War II. There was a camaraderie on campus that created both a fun atmosphere and an engaging learning environment. In fact, famous Coe figues like Marv Levy ’50 and Wayne “Phiz” Phillips ’56 have kept up with her through the years.
“I was surrounded by good people, fun guys. We just had a wonderful time,” Nancy said. “And beyond that, I was able to express myself, have an opinion, debate and be heard. Through those experiences I learned how to think on my own, care and how to help others.”
She created plenty of friendships during her time attending Coe, but also encountered challenges in the classroom — namely statistics. She loved psychology because she learned how to relate to different people, but numbers were different. Fortunately, even then, tutors were available and it was her father that led her to the resources and provided the encouragement for her to buckle down and pass, even though she was working nights at the time.
Her experience with conquering statistics gave her confidence to take on other subjects she didn’t have much experience with, including chemistry with Dr. Ben Peterson, who is the namesake of Peterson Hall on campus.
“He took care of us non-majors just like his [chemistry] majors. That’s the attitude that Coe had. I mean, everyone just wanted us to succeed,” Nancy said.
Nancy carried that helpful approach into the next phase of her life, where her Coe roots blossomed into an incredible career as an educator at Unity Point-St. Luke’s hospital across from campus.
Nursing education looked different 70 years ago in Cedar Rapids — St. Luke’s ran its own nursing school, and Nancy split her time between the hospital and Coe in a five-year program, eventually graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from Coe and a nursing diploma from St. Lukes. Education was where her heart was, so she combined that passion with her nursing acumen and worked at St. Luke’s for 46 years, mostly as an influential nursing faculty member. She even received her Master of Arts in educational administration from the University of Iowa in 1979, while she was raising her children. She retired in 1999 as an education administrator in St Luke’s Patient Care Services, where she continued to develop ongoing training materials.
There are even parallels between Nancy’s career and the establishment of the David and Janice McInally Center for Health & Society on campus. As the face of professional nursing in the area, Nancy was essential to health care growth in Cedar Rapids. Former students remember her as always smart, confident, enthusiastic, kind, respectful, articulate and compassionate. The similarities come to a head with one trait in particular — possessing a prescient vision for health care needs and evolution.
In particular, Nancy reinforced a culture of caring at St. Luke’s, renowned for her devotion to patient advocacy. She even came full circle back to Coe as an adjunct nursing instructor in the ’80s.
Nancy was recognized with the St. Luke’s Foundation Founder’s Award in June 2022 for her service to the school of nursing, which closed in 1987 after graduating 2,524 students since 1892, and her continuing educational service within the hospital afterward. The Founder’s Award honors “community members who have had a significant and outstanding impact on health care in Eastern Iowa through their leadership and devotion,” which is certainly one way to describe Nancy.
In retrospect, she has lived a life of service, for which Coe and her family prepared her.
“That Coe degree is who I am now,” she added. “I just love Coe College.”