Ceremony to Honor Rae Carroll Ramage

A dedication ceremony honoring the life and philanthropic service of Rae Carroll Ramage (1913 - 2006) is scheduled for 3 to 4 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 24. Services will take place on the second floor of the Education Building located on the campus of Fairmont State University.

Displays honoring the late Rae Carroll Ramage; her brother Robert Carroll, Ph.D.; and her husband Dr. Chesney McCauley Ramage will be unveiled. A reception will follow the dedication ceremonies. The event is open to the public, and community members are welcome to RSVP their attendance.

Born in Morgantown on Dec. 20, 1913, Rae Carroll Ramage was one of six children. She graduated from Barrackville High School in 1930 and obtained her Bachelor of Arts in English in 1933 from Fairmont State College.

In May 1937, Ramage became the financial secretary at the Fairmont Emergency Hospital, located on Guffey Street. The hospital, built in 1901 by the State of West Virginia, served as a regional center to care for injured coal miners. She met and married Chesney McCauley Ramage, M.D., the superintendent of the hospital, in 1914. In 1946, she received her nursing diploma from the hospital and joined her husband in private practice.

Following the death of her husband in 1957, she began work as an evening charge nurse at Fairmont General Hospital on the fifth floor. Known and respected for her efficiency, abilities and dedication to the profession of nursing, Rae Carroll Ramage, R.N. provided the highest level of patient care and expected the same from support personnel in her unit. After a long career at Fairmont General, she retired in 1983.

Ramage devoted her later years to the philanthropic support of medicine and higher education. In 1994, she established the Chesney McCauley Ramage Endoscopy Unit in support of outpatient services at Fairmont General Hospital. To honor the memory of her younger brother, a renowned physicist, she established the annual Robert L. Carroll Memorial Scientific Lectureship at Fairmont State University and created an endowed chair in physics in his name at the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University. Upon her death, the Rae Carroll Ramage Endowed Scholarship Fund was established at the Fairmont State Foundation, Inc., through her estate to support nursing scholarships in the School of Nursing and Allied Health Administration at Fairmont State University.

The mission of the Fairmont State Foundation, Inc. is to support, through ethical stewardship, the mission of Fairmont State University and Pierpont Community & Technical College. The Foundation will identify, establish and cultivate meaningful relationships with Fairmont State alumni and potential and existing funding constituencies to meet contributor needs while securing funds and supporters for priority objectives identified by the Board of Governors.

Gifts in honor of Rae Carroll Ramage may be sent to the Fairmont State Foundation, Inc., 1201 Locust Avenue, Fairmont, WV 26554. To discuss planned giving or the creation of an endowed scholarship, contact K. Jean Ahwesh at (304) 366-4164 or via e-mail at jahwesh@fairmontstate.edu.

To RSVP for the dedication ceremony and reception honoring Rae Carroll Ramage, contact Lori Postlethwait at the Fairmont State Foundation, Inc., by calling (304) 367-4804 or toll free at (866) 372-2586.