1954 Mayor Robert F. Wagner addressed graduates during the School's Golden Jubilee celebration held in the hospital auditorium, newly named after former Hospital President David L. Podell.

1958 Governor W. Averell Harriman laid the cornerstone for six-story Karpas Pavilion. Four floors would serve as the school dormitory for 148 students.

1959 Rose Muscatine Hauer, R.N., M.A., '37, became the first graduate to be named School Director. The School's diploma program received accreditation from the National League for Nursing.

1960 Karpas Pavilion became a hospital facility; students were no longer expected to serve as hospital staffers.

1966 Fierman Hall, located at 317 East 1 th Street , opened as Beth Israel School of Nursing with dormitories.

The renowned Charles H. Silver, former president of the New York City Board of Education and president of the American Woolen Company, became Beth Israel's 12th president in 1945; his reign would last until 1984, by far the longest of any chairman. By all accounts, he was a one-man development office, guiding the hospital through an extraordinary period of growth and sowing the seeds for the enormous medical center Beth Israel is today. The social service department, established in 1907, was reorganized in 1949, and in 1954 the Charles H. Silver Outpatient Clinic was established.

Capping ceremony in 1950

Student nurses in class

A 1953 survey indicated a serious shortage of nurses with higher degrees. In college nursing programs only 36% of the teachers had earned a master's degree. 51% were at the bachelor's degree level, and 13% had no degree at all. Critical nursing shortages again arose, and newspapers were calling the situation "a menace to the nation's health."

The United States Department of Labor listed professional nursing as a "critical occupation" in 1955. A New York World Telegram article, "Wanted! 50,000 Nurses" dated January 17 stated, "Odds are 50% you won't get a trained nurse." The American Hospital Association stated: "There are nearly 15,000 hospital beds which can't be used because nurses cannot be found to staff them."

Class of 1956

Nursing class sometime during the 1950’s

In 1959, Clare Casey suddenly died while the school administration and faculty were in the midst of an accreditation process with the deadline only a month away. Faculty members decided to forge ahead with the accreditation process working night and day to make the deadline. A month later, the school received accreditation for the first time.

Supported by funding from the $250 million "City of Life " building program of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York in the 1960s , Beth Israel Hospital underwent a 10 year construction program that transformed the neighborhood hospital into the vast medical center it is today. Its name was changed to Beth Israel Medical Center in 1965. The drive saw completion of Fierman Hall in 1961, a modern, much needed new dormitory for the School of Nursing . Named after Minnie and Harold F. Fierman, an attorney and longtime board member who grew up on the Lower East Side , the hall included accommodations for 260 nurses and cost $270 million. The new hall enabled enrollments at the school to increase to over 200. There were "beau rooms" where nurses could meet friends, individual rooms designed as "one-room homes" music rooms, a kitchen, and areas for dancing and entertainment." Fierman Hall now houses doctors' offices as well as the Seymour J. Phillips Health Sciences Library.

Nursing student observers in the operating room.

David G. Baird Hall was completed in 1963, named in honor of the financier who made major contributions toward the construction of the 20 story staff apartment house with 144 units. In 1964, the old Manhattan General Hospital at 307 Second Avenue was purchased, refurbished and renamed the Morris J Bernstein Institute in honor of another major contributor

In 1966, the Belle and Jack Linsky Pavilion opened with the help of funds provided by the inventor, Jack Linsky. Its accommodations of 313 beds were "equipped with the latest electronic developments to hasten treatment and recovery. Its intensive care unit included bedside communications with pillow-speaker hand units, special facilities for patients using oxygen and pagers used by nurses.

Graduating Class sometime during the 1950's

In the early 1960s, the Stella and Charles Gutman Radiotherapy Unit, a second staff apartment house, and the Samuel H. Golding Science building, adjoining the new Fierman Hall, were built.

Milton Petrie, the distinguished philanthropist, made major contributions to the hospital in many areas, and the 16 th Street site is now named the Milton and Carroll Petrie Division. Walter Krisssel, member of the board of trustees, served for several years in the 1960s as the nursing school chairman and is fondly remembered for his contributions to the school