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Beth Reifsnyder: Nurse

Photos courtesy of Beth Reifsnyder Beth and Dan Reifsnyder fly together.

Beth Reifsnyder’s career as a nurse has taken her to some interesting places.

Reifsnyder, a former Mifflin County school board director and a current board member of the Mifflin County Airport Authority, has had some interesting adventures throughout the years.

Reifsnyder majored in fine arts in college, which didn’t really pay the bills, so she went back to school at Temple University for nursing and graduated in 1981.

“Temple was focused on growing administration nursing … a nursing degree is very versatile,” she said.

Reifsnyder said she has so many memorable moments as a student, including one where she had an assignment to teach the head of the pharmacy department at Temple something she had learned.

Photo courtesy of Beth Reifsnyder
Beth Reifsnyder, a nurse known locally for her service on the Mifflin County School Board, also flies at the Mifflin County Airport and serves on the Airport Authority’s Board of Directors.

“He was kind and generous, he let me do the part I needed to do … it made me want to be like him, because he was giving me what he had to give,” she said. “There were a lot of funny things along the way.”

Reifsnyder married a Navy man, which meant she went where he did.

“Nursing is a cash and carry degree,” Reifsnyder said of how a nurse can get a job just about anywhere — unless you go to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a civilian.

Reifsnyder’s husband had been stationed at the naval base on the eastern side of Cuba in the mid 1980s and, because she wasn’t enlisted personnel, she had to seek out other employment.

Through the Department of Defense, Reifsnyder was employed as a substitute teacher for the school on the base.

Photo courtesy of Beth Reifsnyder
Beth Reifsnyder, a nurse known locally for her service on the Mifflin County School Board, also flies at the Mifflin County Airport and serves on the Airport Authority’s Board of Directors.

Reifsnyder said there were about 5,000 people on the base, which was about five square miles in size.

“You were kind of stuck there unless you flew in or out,” she said.

Reifsnyder said that in addition to enlisted men and women, there were also a handful of Cuban civilians who worked on the base.

“There were also some Cuban expats who lived on the base and had been there since the revolution,” she said.

Reifsnyder said the climate was like a tropical desert, complete with “beachfront property.”

Photo courtesy of Beth Reifsnyder
Beth Reifsnyder, a nurse known locally for her service on the Mifflin County School Board, also flies at the Mifflin County Airport and serves on the Airport Authority’s Board of Directors.

She can recall telling visiting servicemen to be careful with sun exposure, but invariably there were always several who “looked like lobsters after staying in the sun too long.”

Reifsnyder said you had to learn how to make do with what you had on the base, because sometimes they ran out of things at the commissary. If that happened, people traded what they could and watched out for one another.

“You learned to stock up when you could … it was a really interesting place to live,” she said.

Reifsnyder has a lot of good memories of living on the base. Topping the list was the birth of her son.

“My husband and I both learned to scuba dive there,” she said.

Beth Reifsnyder, with her husband, Dan, pose at his graduation at Pensacola Naval Aerospace and Regional Medical Center.

Reifsnyder also worked in Florida for a while, as well as South Carolina, and then ended up in central Pennsylvania, where she continued to work in nursing.

Reifsnyder said she worked at Geisinger-Lewistown Hospital for a while, in the medical surgical unit. She was also the executive director of the Mifflin-Juniata Dental Clinic, and Director of Nursing at Malta Homes.

“When we moved here we had small children so I did a lot of part time positions,” Reifsnyder said.

“I enjoyed the administration positions. I enjoyed making nursing staff jobs easier and being a part of that support system,” she added.

Reifsnyder has also been a pilot for about six years.

Photo courtesy of Beth Reifsnyder
Beth Reifsnyder, a nurse known locally for her service on the Mifflin County School Board, also flies at the Mifflin County Airport and serves on the Airport Authority’s Board of Directors.

“At a relatively old age, you can teach an old dog new tricks,” she said.

Reifsnyder said there are a lot of exams required to become a pilot, and she likes that because it keeps her mind active, much like nursing does through the job itself and continuing education.

One very memorable moment Reifsnyder had, in which the worlds of nursing and flying crossed paths, involved an elderly patient.

“We made arrangements to bring him to the airport and lifted him into the plane for a ride. Seeing the smile on his face was worth it,” Reifsnyder said. “He passed away shortly after. I was happy to do that for him.”

Reifsnyder said there is an interesting cross section of people at the airport, “from all facets of life, people who know how to do so many different things, practical things, like run a business or a farm. The passion of flying brings them together. It fascinates me,” she said. “We have retired airline pilots, firemen, business professionals. It’s amazing, there are so many talented people.”

Reifsnyder has always, on some level, enjoyed teaching, especially when it comes to her chosen profession.

“A couple of years ago I helped start the year at technical school. It was interesting to be in classroom with high school students. I was glad they knew to call me.” she said.

Her passion for education also led her to serve on the school board for 17 years.

“I think over the years one of the neat things I did was school board. There was a real cross section of people with different abilities,” Reifsnyder said.

Now, Reifsnyder doesn’t work much, and enjoys the free time she has. She continues to serve on the Mifflin County Airport Authority board, and gets in the cockpit whenever she can.

“Lots of traveling and flying for now,” she said.

Photo courtesy of Beth Reifsnyder
Beth Reifsnyder, center, enjoys scuba diving in the Grand Caymans with her daughter, Katie Becker, and grandson, Tristan Hileman.

Photo courtesy of Beth Reifsnyder

Photo courtesy of Beth Reifsnyder

Photo courtesy of Beth Reifsnyder

Photo courtesy of Beth Reifsnyder

Photo courtesy of Beth Reifsnyder

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