The Ethel Fanson, MD, Endowed Scholarship

The Ethel Fanson, MD, Endowed Scholarship was established in 1981 after Dr. Fanson’s passing. Dr. Fanson was a 1922 graduate of Rush Medical College.

After completing her undergraduate degree at Maryville College in Tennessee, Dr. Fanson began her medical training at Rush, where she studied internal medicine. After graduating from RMC, she headed west for an internship and residency at Los Angeles General Hospital. Impressed by her skills, the chief of medicine at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena recruited Dr. Fanson as the first woman physician in that hospital’s history. An expert in x-ray and clinical laboratory work, she helped establish Las Encinas’ first clinical laboratory and x-ray facilities.

Dr. Fanson was a charter member of the American College of Cardiologists and a fellow of the American Geriatric Society. In later years, she was on faculty at the University of Southern California. Dr. Fanson passed away in 1979 and left her entire estate to Rush Medical College, which established this scholarship in her honor.