By Carolyn Bogott

American Association of University Women

Mary Anne Wolesky is another Austin woman who has made and continues to make a positive impact on our community.

She speaks with exuberant enthusiasm of her more than 45 years involvement in medical care in Austin and Rochester, first as an emergency room nurse, manager, and then as director of nursing, which later evolved into vice president of nursing and patient care with the Mayo Clinic Health System.

“I enjoyed every aspect of nursing, having an opportunity to make a difference for patients and their families,” Mary Anne said. “I loved being in very direct contact with people who needed compassion. And I loved the team work, efficiency, knowledge and skill involved in emergency and hospital care.”

During her years in administrative roles, Mary Anne relished the opportunity to learn new things, and start new services, including the Hospice program.

Growing up in Austin and Owatonna, Mary Anne was the oldest of nine children. She experienced surgery herself and the hospital care that was required. She watched the nurses and what they did to help patients, and a seed was planted. Later, she was a “candy striper,”a youth volunteer in the hospital.

Mary Anne recalls feeding a patient who had severe damage to his face and realizing “in her heart” that nursing was her calling.

While in high school, Mary Anne had several jobs.  One job was housekeeping and babysitting for their family doctor.  The doctor’s wife, who had trained as a registered nurse, was a wonderful mentor for Mary Anne and she offered to pay expenses for Mary Anne to go to nursing school at Saint Marys in Rochester. It was “a dream come true!” Mary Anne said.

The condition on the gift was that if Mary Anne could repay the amount, an opportunity would be offered to another person to go to nursing school.  The deal was made and after graduation, Mary Anne was able to fulfill that bargain within the next few years.

At the beginning of her career, Mary Anne worked in the emergency department of Saint Marys Hospital in Rochester.  She and her husband, Jerry Wolesky, made their home in Austin, where Jerry was teaching.  When their third child arrived, as helpful and supportive as Jerry was, it became impossible for Mary Anne to commute between Austin and Rochester.  As she began her work in the emergency room in Austin, she saw that what she had been told was true, that you had to be better to work in a smaller rural hospital setting which did not have all the equipment, staff and procedures she was used to at Saint Marys.  It became a goal of hers to try to bring improvements and acquire skills to work in this new setting.

Carrying on with this drive for education, Mary Anne was privileged to participate in a two-year program in patient care administration at the University of Minnesota Graduate School of Public Health. At this point she was working full time, as well as going to school and raising her family.  Jerry again helped and supported Mary Anne in this endeavor.

From the example set by her mother, who was always a mentor, Mary Anne learned the importance of being active in the community.  Mary Anne was a founding board member of the Welcome Center, was able to travel to Los Angeles as a National Red Cross volunteer to help after the earthquake there and she also headed up a county-wide suicide prevention educational effort.

After retirement, Mary Anne has continued community volunteer work. She was in on the groundwork of the ArtWorks Festival, and has worked on it all eight years of its existence, co-chairing it with Bonnie Rietz for the last three years.

Other community activities include five-plus years as the executive director of the MCHS Austin Foundation, four years as president of the Austin Area Arts, Mayo Hospice Community Advisory Board, and the board of Mayo Clinic Health System-Albert Lea and Austin. Mary Anne bubbles with enthusiasm for projects that she sees in the future which will enhance our community.

Her words of wisdom, which she certainly has followed, are “Do what you love. And try to keep learning something new all the time.”

Mary Anne Wolesky, we salute you and thank you for your many positive impacts on our community of Austin.

For more information about the Austin Branch of AAUW, contact program co-chair, Sue Grove  sue.grove@riverland.edu  or Carolyn Bogott  csbogott@charter.net