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The “100th
Birthday” of Ethel Lee (Bazar) Walden
Special to The Truth
Ethel Lee Walden, the wife of prominent Toledo physician,
founding MCO (UTMC) faculty member, and founding medical
director of the Cordelia Martin Health Center, Dr. Robert
E. Walden, M.D. (deceased), will celebrate her 100 years
on this earth next Saturday, October 5, 2019.
Ethel Walden played an important role in the fledgling days
of the Medical College of Ohio; one of several faculty wives
who filled a role as de facto hospitality and social
coordinators in support of their husbands’ dream of starting
a “community medical college.”
She often hosted parties, gatherings and dinners in their
Westmoreland home when the entire faculty and students were
few enough to fit into one living room. She was there to
help turn the first shovel of dirt for the inaugural
building of the new campus, the Health Science Building.
She continued to support the college even after her
husband’s passing, having funded a scholarship in his honor
for UTMC students wishing to pursue a career in psychiatry.
In addition, Ethel Walden has been a strong supporter of the
arts and community service. She’s an emeritus past-president
of the local chapter of The Links, Inc. (one of the nation’s
oldest and largest social service organizations of
outstanding African American women), as well as the local
Study Hour Club of prominent African-American women. She
worked in the Gift Shop at the Toledo Museum of Art, donated
to its Glass Pavilion construction fund, and has been a
long-time supporter of PBS.
Walden has seen a lot of changes in this country and the
world during the past century. She worked her way up from
farm labor picking cotton and domestic help, to being the
wife of a prominent doctor and community leader amidst the
harsh realities of Jim Crow racism and the Civil Rights
Movement.
She lived through the end of the “Old West”, saw men land on
the moon, shared in this nation’s sacrifice during WWII, and
saw the first African American inaugurated president of the
United States! Yet, among all of her accomplishments, her
proudest achievements have been watching her children and
grandchildren go on to lead proud successful lives of their
own.
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