General Clara Adams-Ender to Present Memoir, ‘My Rise to the Stars,’ Outlining Life Journey

To celebrate Westfield State University’s 185 anniversary and recognize Women’s History Month, the University will host General Clara Adams-Ender for a book presentation and signing of her memoir, My Rise to the Stars: How a Sharecropper’s Daughter Became an Army General. In the book, Adams-Ender, narrates her ascent throughout academia, nursing, and the United States Army along with various accomplishments throughout her life. The event will take place on Thursday, March 21 from 5:00 – 6:30 p.m., at University Hall.

One of ten children, Adams-Ender was born in 1939 to sharecropper parents who owned a tobacco farm in North Carolina. Her academic talent was apparent even in childhood, with Adams-Ender graduating high school at 16 as the second in her class. After attending North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, she joined the United States Army as a means to fund her education, where she found success initially as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps at Brooke Army Medical Center in Fort Sam in Houston, Texas.

She was then deployed oversees and worked as a staff nurse for the 121st evacuation hospital in the Pacific theater near North Korea. She would later serve in Germany before being promoted to colonel and returning to Fort Sam as a medical-surgical nursing instructor. One of her most notable achievements came in 1967, when she became the first female officer to receive an Expert Medical Field Badge.

Adams-Ender returned to higher education to attend the University of Minnesota, where she earned a master’s degree in medical-surgical nursing. In 1976, she graduated from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, as the first woman to earn a Master of Military Art and Science degree.

In 1982, she graduated from the U.S. Army War College as the first African American Nurse Corps officer in the Army. She was eventually promoted to Brigadier-General and Chief of the Army Nurse Corps in 1987, and became Commanding General in 1991, serving in Virginia and the U.S. Military District of Washington until she retired in 1993.

Adams-Ender received several more awards and distinguished recognition, accepting the Legion of Merit award, Arm Commendation Medal, Meritorious Service Model, the Roy Wilkins Meritorious Service Award of the NAACP, and the Gertrude E. Rush Award for Leadership from the National Bar Association, among others.

In 2001, she published her memoir, which highlights these accomplishments along with the others she’s accumulated. Adams-Ender’s visit to campus highlights the necessity of educating and preparing its students for the workforce, but also as leaders in their own right.

Adams-Ender expressed excitement about the book presentation and signing, as she hopes to connect with students and attendees about her personal and professional experiences.

“I enjoy speaking to students because they are a good audience,” she said. “They are bright,  positive, and ask good questions. I have found that students can relate and are open to my story.”

The book presentation and signing will take place from 5:00-6:30 p.m. at the University Hall Multi-Purpose Room. Attendees will also be able to purchase books at the event.