Lyle Creelman

Creelman was born on August 14, 1908, in Upper Stewiacke, Nova Scotia, the youngest of eleven children as well as the only child of a second marriage.[2] She is a cousin of George Creelman, who was former president of the Ontario Agricultural College.[1] At a young age, she planned to pursue a career in medicine. However, after her father's death, she decided to initially become a teacher in order to earn enough money to support her education.[1]

She attended Vancouver Normal School in British Columbia.[3] In 1936, she graduated from University of British Columbia with a degree in public health nursing.[1] After being awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship, she studied at Columbia University in New York City, graduating in 1939 with a master's degree.[3]

During the Second World War, she lived in Vancouver, where she worked for the Metropolitan Health Department of Vancouver[3] and helped develop nursing services based in the local community. Working with interned Japanese families, Creelman gained additional insight into other cultures.[1]

Near the conclusion of the war, Creelman became chief nurse of occupied Germany's British zone, hired by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.[1] Working there, she experienced challenges, including working in difficult conditions such as overcrowded concentration camps where typhus infections had been deliberately introduced by the German military.[1]

After returning to British Columbia, she co-authored the Baillie-Creelman Report, assessing the status of Canadian public health nursing and making recommendations.[1] In 1949, she began working for the World Health Organization as a nursing consultant.[1] In 1954, she was named Chief Nursing Officer.[3]