Dr. Florence Rena Sabin carved out three brilliant
and diversified careers--one as a teacher, one as a research scientist
and the third as a crusader for better public health in her beloved state.
Dr. Sabin was born in Central City, Colorado. 
In 1895, Dr. Sabin was one of the early women students
at Johns Hopkins Medical School. In 1902, she began her teaching
career which spanned 23 years, most of which were concurrent with her outstanding
career as a medical researcher. In 1917, she became the first woman
to attain a full professorship at Johns Hopkins University.
In 1925, Dr. Sabin was the first woman elected to
a life membership in the National Academy of Sciences, and she was the
first woman invited to join the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.
She established there a Department of Cellular Studies and continued work
on the origin of tuberculosis.
In, 1938, at the age of 67, she began in Colorado
her third career. Following her selection in 1944 as chairman of
a state postwar subcommittee on health, she fought a winning fight for
the so called "Sabin Health Bills" which resulted in the enactment of adequate
state health laws.
She later reorganized Denver's Health Department. In celebration of Dr. Sabin's 80th birthday, the Florence R. Sabin Building
for Research in Cellular Biology was dedicated at the University of Colorado
Department of Medicine on December 1, 1951.
Read the birthday letter written in 1985 by Ken Kramer, 5th
District Representative.
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