Marlene Heldmann Bond

Marlene Heldmann Bond, aged 88, passed away peacefully on Saturday November 2, 2024, at the Hospice of the Piedmont, with family members at her bedside. She was born on February 18,1936, in New York to Walter and Evelyn Heldmann. She was raised and educated in New York where she received her nursing degree from Cornell University. Marlene spent the majority of her adult life and nursing career in Charlottesville, Virginia. As a natural leader and instructor, she began as a clinical nurse, caring for patients with progressive neurological conditions and transitioning into a supervisory position on her unit. Marlene went on to teach at the University of Virginia School of Nursing for over a decade, during which time she earned her Master’s Degree in Nursing Administration. This led to her distinguished career as the Assistant Director of Nursing at UVA, Director at the Blue Ridge Psychiatric Hospital, and ultimately Chief Nursing Officer at the University of Virginia, the position she held until she retired in 2001. Marlene was passionate about providing not just quality care, but the nurturing care which she believed was the province of nurses. She devoted herself to the cause of bringing nurses out of the background and into the forefront of the medical team. She worked tirelessly to ensure that nurses were viewed and respected as the critically important providers that they have always been. Outside of work, Marlene went hunting and fishing in Virginia. She enjoyed family gatherings and loved fishing, swimming and poker nights in Blue. Marlene is pre-deceased by her parents, Walter and Evelyn Heldmann; the father of her daughters David D. Stone; and her granddaughter Bethany Schade Mextorf. She is survived by her husband Bruce, her daughters and their spouses: Marnie and Ken, Callie and Greg, Jennifer and Jon and Shannon and Mark. She also leaves behind her grandchildren: Allison (Rob), Thomas (Siobhan), Connor (Peri), Evy, Marley, Ava, David, Erin (Charles), Megan (Doug), Dustin (Kerry) and Kristin (Brandon) as well as great-grandchildren Allan, Hunter, Ceallaigh, Georgia, Phoenix, Henley, Landon and Peyton. Also left to cherish her memory are her siblings, Phyllis, Mary Lynne and Walter and their families. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made be made on her behalf to Protect the Adirondacks: protectadks.orgThere will be no local services as a celebration of her life will be held in Blue Mountain Lake in August 2025. “The trained nurse has become one of the great blessings of humanity, taking a place beside the physician and the priest.” Dr. William Osler