Health pioneer dies aged 78
A health leader is being remembered as a passionate volunteer who pioneered midwifery in South Australia and the Northern Territory.
Pioneering midwife and passionate community volunteer Pauline Glover is being remembered as someone who always put others first after she died peacefully last Saturday, May 16, aged 78.
Glover’s son Tim Glover remembered his mother as someone who always put her family first.
“The enduring memory for me was that she set a standard that was a high standard, but she encouraged you all the way along with her love, guidance and sage advice,” he said.
“She was just a fierce advocate for people and helping people to be the best version of themselves, whether it was through her teaching in her midwifery and nursing days, or whether it was in her days where she was involved in Zonta and VIEW clubs.”
Tim Glover said his mother always took an interest in others and often struck up conversations with strangers.
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“She would take a personal interest in everyone. I was only listening to someone yesterday who was telling me a story about when she was in Japan … they were sitting in a food court, and there was this little girl there,” he said.
“Then she goes, next minute, you would not believe, she said, ‘Your mother is having a conversation with the mum and dad and the daughter’, but what we didn’t realise was the mum and dad were both deaf.
“She just had this amazing ability to be drawn to people and people drawn to her, and her interest in people was just genuine, like so genuine, she would put her head on the pillow at night, and I’m sure the satisfaction of her day was the fact that she was able to help someone.
“It’ll take a lot of people to fill the void that she’s left and do the things that she did. She was an incredible person to so many people, but at the end of the day, she was just my mum.”
New speaker Nat Cook, who worked as a registered nurse for three decades before entering parliament and taught with Glover at Flinders University, remembered her as “a remarkable nurse, midwife, educator, volunteer and dear friend to all of us”, saying, “I cannot think of a person whom I will miss more”.
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“Pauline was a gifted clinician, Pauline was a teacher, and her warmth, wisdom and unwavering encouragement shaped countless students, colleagues and families,” she told Parliament yesterday.
Glover began training as a midwife in 1965 at Calvary Wakefield Hospital in the Adelaide CBD before completing her training at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woodville South.
She relocated to the Northern Territory in 1980, where she played a key role in developing its first midwifery education program as principal nurse educator at Royal Darwin Hospital’s School of Nursing Education.
Glover later returned to Adelaide and began working as a nursing lecturer at Sturt College of Advanced Education, which later became part of Flinders University, in 1987.
While there, she spearheaded the creation of the college’s first dedicated midwifery program – the Master of Midwifery, which later became the Bachelor of Midwifery.
She also played an important role in developing the Diploma of Teaching (Nurse Education), the Master of Nursing and Health Sciences in 1994 and the Doctor of Education in 2001.
From 2004 to 2008, Glover was associate dean of academic programs at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, which has now become the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, as well as six years as editor of the Australian Midwifery Journal.
Glover was recognised as a trailblazer at Flinders University with two awards for excellence in teaching.
She was also the inaugural recipient of Flinders University’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2006 and a Life Member of the Australian College of Midwives.
In 2022, Glover was named Marion Citizen of the Year for her leading role volunteering with Voice Interests of Women clubs and Rugs with Love, as well as organising a street library, morning teas and grocery drops to struggling families after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Glover’s life will be celebrated at 11am next Thursday at Centennial Park.
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