Walsh University welcomed alumnus and Canton native Willis "Bill" Rambo ’64 to campus for the inaugural lecture of the Master Class Series and Dedication of the New Rambo Family Advanced Nursing Lab, April 7-8.
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As Walsh’s first registered student and a member of the University’s first graduating class of 1964, Rambo shared how he followed his moral and ethical values to enjoy a rewarding and successful career in the insurance industry during the inaugural lecture of Walsh’s Master Class Series on Thursday, April 7.
The lecture coincided with the Mass of Thanksgiving and Dedication of the Rambo Family Advanced Nursing Lab in Walsh’s Byers School of Nursing on Friday, April 8. The event began with Mass in the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chapel and was followed by the Blessing of the Nursing Lab in Aultman 203.
Walsh University’s newest hands-on learning facility provides Byers School of Nursing students an opportunity to extend learning beyond textbooks to real-life situations.
The Rambo Family Advanced Nursing Lab is an interactive simulation classroom that includes advanced educational technology such as a control room for instructors to record and observe students in simulation settings, a high fidelity simulation patient (iStan), a Fidelis Maternal Fetal Birthing Simulator, iPads, multiple monitors throughout the learning space, birthing bed, infant warmer, ventilator and cardia defibrillator.
According to one of Walsh’s founding Brothers and second President, Robert Francoeur, FIC, Rambo was Walsh’s first applicant in school history. A Central Catholic High School graduate, Rambo graduated with his bachelor’s degree in history from Walsh in 1964 and went on to join the National Guard. During his tenure at Walsh, Rambo helped to establish the first Walsh Golf Team and organized Walsh's first prom at the Onesto Hotel during his senior year.
The need for employment, which was scarce in the mid-1960s, led him to a job as an insurance adjuster in Cleveland. After several years, he landed with Cincinnati Insurance Company to open its Michigan office on the western side of the state. Rambo took a chance with the Michigan start-up because he was drawn to a company with values that mirrored his own. Rambo enjoyed a 35-year career in the property/casualty insurance business in Ohio, Michigan and Florida, including 15 years as Vice President with Brown & Brown, Inc. and President of their subsidiary MacDuff Underwriters, Inc.
Rambo also earned his Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters (CPCU) designation after five years of study in 1976. He retired on January 1, 2000. Bill and his wife Trina live in Daytona Beach, Florida. Trina retired from nursing in 2004. Their generosity towards Walsh will not only benefit the University but also the fields of nursing and healthcare to which Trina and the Rambos’ three daughters have dedicated their skills and compassion to as careers.
The baccalaureate degree program in nursing, master’s degree program in nursing, and Doctor of Nursing Practice program at Walsh University are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, 655 K Street, NW, Suite 750, Washington, DC 20001, 202-887-6791. (http://www.ccneaccreditation.org).