Virginia Sewell Vidaver

Born in 1934, Virginia was the youngest child of Clyde “Tiddley” Stetzel and Martha Virginia Moore Sewell of Jackson, Tennessee. She graduated from Jackson Central High School in 1951, attended Belmont College for one year before transferring to Union University, where the student body elected her most beautiful co-ed during her sophomore year and brightest student in the junior class.

She graduated Union in 1955 and then pursued additional training at the Yale University School of Nursing, receiving a Master of Science in Nursing in 1958. She later earned a Master’s Degree in Health Care Administration from Columbia University Teachers’ College in 1982 and entered its doctoral program.

She met her husband of sixty-three years, Dr. Robert M. Vidaver, in 1958. They married in 1960 and raised four children: Mary, Robert C., Patrick, and John. As a wife and a mother, her love never faltered, expressed in an unstinting investment of time and energy into the family’s well-being.

Virginia spent much of her professional career expanding the reach and impact of home health services. At New Haven Visiting Nurse Association, she collaborated with Yale researchers on an innovative child health and parenting plan and new community-based programs for the mentally ill. She directed a visiting nurse association in Bernardsville, New Jersey and served as director of nursing for the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Neo-Natal Care at Sentara Teaching Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia. Of importance too, was her teaching role at Old Dominion University, also in Norfolk. In 1988, she accepted appointment as the chief executive officer of a community-based home health care agency in Keene, New Hampshire, transforming the small non-profit organization into the multi-service, multi-district HCS (Home Health Care, Hospice & Community Services) until her retirement in 2001.

Virginia was a member of the Chi Omega, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and two honor societies, Phi Theta Kappa and Sigma Theta Tau.

Virginia was predeceased by her parents and her elder siblings, Clyde Jr. (a B-24 pilot killed in action during World War II) and Barbara Sue (Baker). She leaves behind her husband, Robert, four children, their spouses and partners, a nephew and three nieces, two grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren, along with multiple friends and extended family.

A funeral service will take place on Monday, November 6th at 1 pm in the sanctuary of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Hopkinton, New Hampshire. A burial will follow at Pine Grove Cemetery in Concord, New Hampshire. In lieu of flowers the family has requested that donations be made in Virginia’s name to the Yale University School of Nursing Annual Fund, P.O. Box 803, New Haven, CT 06503. or HCS (Home Health Care, Hospice & Community Services) in Keene, N.H..

The Bennett Funeral Home 209 N. Main St. Concord, NH is assisting the family with arrangements.