Former Glendale Memorial chief of staff dies at 97

Gary Moskowitz

GLENDALE -- As a young girl living on Beaver Island, Mich., Hildegarde

Wilkinson would tag along when her father, a doctor, would treat

low-income families on the island in his free time.

She would later became a doctor herself, and came to be known as a

woman who would drop everything when someone else was in need.

Wilkinson, who in 1923 became the first woman to be accepted into

Stanford University Medical School, declined to attend because her mother

had been in a severe automobile accident and needed special care.

Wilkinson died Tuesday at Villa Gardens Retirement Home in Pasadena.

She was 97.

She was born July 6, 1903 in Michigan.

Wilkinson was honored last April by local members of the Altrusa Club

for her dedication as a charter member of the Glendale chapter of the

women’s service group and her reputation for being generous and full of

love.

“She’s the kind of person you couldn’t forget,” Altrusa Club member

and friend Pauline Burke said. “She was the most helpful person Glendale

ever had.”

Wilkinson specialized in obstetrics and gynecology, was a lecturer and

was installed as chief of staff at Glendale Memorial Hospital in 1969.

Staff at the hospital knew her as “Dr. Hildegarde.” She retired in 1980.

Wilkinson was a nurturer of her whole family, which was her favorite

thing to do, said her brother Frank.

“Hildegarde was a natural leader, and an unbelievable role model to

anyone who ever met her,” Frank Wilkinson said. “She was my role model

for sure. She was just naturally wonderful.”