University News
Former WIU Staff Physician, Professor Bella Hearst Passes Away
February 21, 2008
MACOMB, IL -- Dr. Bella Hearst, a former staff physician at Western Illinois University's Beu Health Center and health sciences faculty emeritus, died at 12:05 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 20 at The Elms Nursing Home in Macomb. She was 100 years old.
Hearst received her medical degree in 1950 and worked as a staff physician at the Beu Health Center from 1972-73. She was also an associate professor of health sciences at WIU. Hearst was noted worldwide for her research on diabetes, and she was named a human reference source in the Library of Human Resources by the American Bicentennial Research Institute. She set up a pathology department at Hospital O'Horan in Mexico, and in 1962 she was the only American woman chosen to present a paper before the Eighth International Congress in Russia.
In 2004, through a $104,919 grant from Hearst, the departments of dietetics, fashion merchandising and hospitality (DFMH), kinesiology and health sciences, along with the Beu Health Center, established the Bella Hearst Diabetic Institute at WIU to conduct research on the prevention and control of diabetes and to provide individualized treatment and education for incoming diabetic freshmen.
There will be no services. Cremation has been accorded. Clugston-Tibbitts Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Posted By: Darcie Shinberger (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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