Marge Douglass Retires After 25 Years at CFHC
by Richard Bernstein

After more than 25 years as nurse practitioner at the Charlotte Family Health Center on Ferry Road, Marjorie Douglass will retire at the end of July.
Of her tenure in Charlotte Marge says, “I have enjoyed having a role in creating an environment that supports both patients and staff at the health center, but the best part has been getting to know the families in the area and working with them over an extended period of time.”
Marge completed her nursing degree at UVM in 1965 and was one of the early graduates of the Family Nurse Practitioner program there in 1980. She arrived at the health center in 1982, thinking it was a long way to drive from her home in Jericho. Very soon, however, the health center, one of the pioneers in the use of physicians’ assistants and nurse practitioners in the care of patients, proved a good match for her talents and aspirations.
As a lobbyist for the Vermont State Nurses Association and through the many nurse practitioner students she brought to the health center for practical training, Marge worked to foster the role of nurse practitioners in Vermont. She has also helped teach countless second- and third-year UVM medical students during their month-long rotations at the health center, training young doctors in a style of medical practice not often learned in less personal settings.
In retirement, Marge is looking forward, at last, to being able to harvest all the vegetables in her garden. She and her husband, Bill, enjoy traveling as well, and with ten grandchildren, there are always more soccer games, school events and graduations coming up.
The Charlotte Family Health Center staff will miss her, as will Marge’s patients, their children, and, in some cases, their grandchildren.