Harriet H. Werley was born in 1914 in Pennsylvania. She received a nursing diploma from the
Jefferson Medical College Hospital School of Nursing in Philadelphia in 1940, a B.S. in
nursing education from the University of California, Berkeley in 1948, a M.A. in nursing
administration from the Teacher's College at Columbia University in 1951, and a Ph.D. in
psychology from the University of Utah in 1969.
Werley began her career with the United States Army Nurse Corps (ANC) in 1941 and served
thirty-seven months in the Mediterranean theater during World War II. In 1952 she served as
the ANC career planning officer in the Office of the Surgeon General, and in 1955 was
assigned to the Dept. of Atomic Casualties Studies at the Walter Reed Army Institute of
Research (WRAIR). In 1957 she was appointed chief of the Department of Nursing at WRAIR. In
1962 she became chief nurse for the U.S. 8th Army Headquarters in Korea, and retired as
lieutenant colonel from the ANC in 1964.
After receiving her Ph.D. in 1969, Werley began her second career as director of the Center
for Nursing Research at Wayne State University. In 1974, Werley accepted a position as
professor of general nursing and dean of research at the Medical Center College of Nursing,
University of Illinois. From 1979 to 1983 she was the associate dean for research at the
Columbia School of Nursing, University of Missouri. In 1983 Werley came to the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee where she held the position of distinguished professor in the School of
Nursing before retiring in 1991, though she continued to work at UWM until 1997.
Werley was a founding editor of Research in Nursing and
Health, founded in 1977, and the Annual Review of Nursing
Research, founded in 1983. Werley, who was the recipient of numerous awards, died
on October 14, 2002.
For more details, see Werley's autobiography in box 1 of the collection.
