Find

document

Catalog Number
T95-1384.7
Description
List of the members of the Administrative Forum. Not dated.
History
Prior to 1917, the city of Holland did not have a community hospital. For many years Dr. Henry Kremers (1850-1914) acted as one of the city’s leading physicians. Despite his significant medical contributions to Holland, the growing city was in dire need of a community hospital. Concerned by the lack of medical facilities, a group of Holland citizens set out to organize the town’s first hospital in 1916.
By 1917, three years after Dr. Kremers' death, the Kremers family sold his property at the corner of Central and 12th to the city of Holland for the establishment of a community hospital. The upstairs of Dr. Kremers’ house functioned as a nurses’ home while the downstairs served as a baby clinic. At this time, the hospital had a total of 14 beds.
For eleven years Holland Hospital operated at this site before moving to its present location at 602 Michigan Avenue in 1928. The name was changed at this time to Holland City Hospital. By the 1970s the name had been changed to Holland Community Hospital.

Mabel B. Miller served as the hospital's superintendent from about 1921 to 1929 (Holland city directories). Mabel was born on 1-25-1888 somewhere in Michigan. In 1900 she was living in Hastings, MI with her parents Henry and Mary Miller (1900 US Census). Mabel passed away in Battle Creek, MI on 5-7-1968.

Rena Boven (1896-1957), for whom Holland Hospital's Boven Birth Center is named, was one of the first registered nurses at Holland's hospital on 12th Street. She became superintendent of Holland Hospital (from 1931 to 1947 roughly), followed by the Director of Nursing at Holland Hospital.

Members of the Holland Hospital Auxiliary voted to change their name to the Rena Boven Hospital Guild, so named in 1952 to honor Boven's career. Their reason being that Rena stood for "careful, conscientious and consecrated service to the hospital" (Holland Sentinel, 8-9-1952, page 4).

Fred Burd was born on 8-17-1917. On May 1, 1949 he became director of Holland Hospital, serving in that capacity for 32 years. Burd passed away on 3-9-1983 at his home in West Olive, MI.

Gift of
Holland Hospital