FEATURED AUTHOR
Sharon Schildein Grimes Knox
Twenty-three years after completing a bachelor's degree in music from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey, I entered the history graduate program at Duke University. I was awarded a M.A. in 1979 and a Ph.D. in 1986. My dissertation focused on the evolution of the British National Health Service. The work was published in 1991 as part of a Garland Series of Outstanding Studies and Dissertations, edited by Peter Stansky.
Subjects: History
Biography
My interest in a national health service began in 1964 with my first work position. I became an editorial assistant to the Vice President of the American Hospital Association. It was a pivotal year, as Medicare would be introduced shortly. An adviser from the Nuffield Trust in England, Gordon McLachlan, assisted us in the transition. We wrote a weekly newsletter to all affiliated hospitals explaining the necessary administrative changes.Married to a medical student, we moved to North Carolina for his urology residency and I worked in the Director's Office of Duke Hospitals. Entering graduate school I planned to focus on an eighteenth-century subject but kept returning to my interest in health care. As I remarried an English resident, following the death of my late husband, I became the recipient of N.H.S. care. Now that I am a Canadian resident, once again I experience excellent health care.
Education
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Ph.D., Duke University, Durham, N.C., 1986
M.A., Duke University, Durham, N.C., 1979
B.M., Westminster Choir College, Princeton, N.J., 1964
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
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I continue to follow developments in the British N.H.S. I am presently working on a manuscript far from my primary research interests. It involve chapters on transitions in ideology between England and America concerning Methodism and the evolution of Sunday schools. This came out of a study of sermons given in central Illinois in the 1860s-1870s, of which I have the originals.
Personal Interests
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My interest in music has been lifelong. As an undergraduate at Westminster we performed regularly with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. While at Duke I sang with the Duke Chapel Choir and toured England, Poland, Germany,the Czech Republic and China. Singing with my students was a memorable experience for us both, seeing the countries we had previously studied. I also sang with professional choirs which toured Russia, Central Europe and Italy. After fifty-two years, I have recently resumed piano lessons.
My other interests include cooking, sewing, knitting, gardening and travel. Marrying again as a widow, we have a total of eight children, thirteen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
My two adult children, John Harlin Grimes Jr. and William Scott Grimes, live in North Carolina.
Books
