Fall 2007
Vol. 14/ No. 2

Mizzou Moment

1985

Harold Stearley, JD, BSN '86, RN, and his 3-month old baby daughter, Laura, took on the challenge of a well-child check photo shoot. In the fall of 1985, the School's publicity department wanted this shot for an undergraduate program brochure. However, Laura didn't want her photo taken and cried every time the photographer stepped into the Skills Lab.

2007

Well this photo brings back a few memories. The child is my daughter, Laura. She was born in July 1985 as I started my last year of nursing school in the fall, graduating in May of '86.

The picture was taken in the fall, if I remember correctly. They wanted a cover shot for a School of Nursing Brochure for the undergraduate program – I still have a copy of the brochure. They wanted a male nurse conducting a well-child check up and it couldn't have worked out better than picking Laura and I for the shot. The problem was the cameraman scared her and made her cry. She was doing great sitting in the skills lab until he came in the room. If he left the room she would stop crying, but she would start again as soon as he came back in. They decided to go ahead and take the shot – they thought it would be realistic because babies do sometimes cry when they are being examined.

My daughter turned 22 this summer. She moved to Fulton when she got out of the Army at the end of September 2005. She joined the military when she was 17 and she did a year tour in Iraq . Laura runs her own horse boarding and training business now and I went to law school a few years ago and became an attorney – after 12 years as an RN at University Hospital. I helped create the STAT Nurse program and was the Hospital's first STAT Nurse. Today, I'm a Public Service Commission Judge.

Laura's become quite the young woman and I'm a lot older. Yep, a lot has happened since that picture was taken.