Obituary
NORTH CHATHAM — Shirley R. MacIver, a physician, wife, mother and community leader who brought zest, energy and joyfulness to the lives of those around her, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease at her North Chatham home on May 3, 2007.
Born on June 20, 1921, she grew up the only child of Urbain and Lyda Boulanger in then rural Hanson, and enjoyed a classic New England childhood. Fascinated by the Hanson Tuberculosis Hospital down the street, she decided at an early age to become a physician. She achieved her dream in 1948, graduating as a doctor from the University of Vermont School of Medicine after having received a bachelor's degree from Jackson College (Tufts University), and a master of science degree from the University of Maryland.
She met her husband, Dr. John MacIver, as a resident in Washington, D.C., and together they traveled to Louisville, Ky., New Haven, Conn., New York and eventually, Pittsburgh, Pa., pursuing their careers and raising their two young sons.
Her professional career as a pulmonary medicine - critical care specialist was remarkably varied, demonstrating that she was equally at home in the office, at the bedside and in the laboratory. In New York, she organized a cardiopulmonary laboratory under the aegis of Dr. Andre Cournand and was with him when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1956 for his work in cardiac catheterization. She maintained, however, that her best job was organizing and operating a full pulmonary-critical service at St. Francis Hospital in Pittsburgh in the late 1960s.
After moving with her husband to North Chatham in 1972, she touched many patients and staff with her grace, skill and empathy as a clinician associated with Cape Cod Hospital. After surviving an ominous bout with breast cancer first diagnosed in 1973, she led the Division of Health Technologies at Cape Cod Community College. Here she continued to excel in the service of the college and her students, transforming the division that has since graduated hundreds of nurses and dental hygienists.
She retired from professional life in 1981, and then focused her energies full-time on the community service activities to which she had always been committed. Her evenhanded temperament and continuing commitment to medical excellence led to her participation on the Massachusetts Medical Society's Judiciary Committee for 12 years, six of which she served as chairwoman. She also committed countless hours to the Heritage Plantation (now Heritage Museum and Gardens) in Sandwich, rising from docent to a seat on its board of trustees. She also participated in numerous other mental health, social and historical societies, serving as chairwoman of the board of the Barnstable County Hospital and as president of the Southeastern Massachusetts Lung Association. She also founded and enthusiastically enjoyed her membership in the Dorcas Nickerson Chapter of the Questers, an international antique and historical study society, allowing her to make many friends at other chapters across the country.
Dr. MacIver was a gracious and inventive hostess, delighting in preparing elaborate dinner parties and topping the evenings with games and entertainments that often ended in hilarity. She devoured spy novels and idolized the Boston Celtics of the 1980s, whose pictures graced the walls of her sewing room. She and her husband traveled to many corners of the world and loved the significant amount of time they were able to spend in Hawaii later in life. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2000 in the room at the Wayside Inn at Chatham where she had celebrated her 16th and 75th birthdays.
Her legacy to her life of service, her wide-ranging interests and her commitment to medicine are perhaps best memorialized in the medicinal herb garden - Hortus Medicus, also called ''the Signet Garden - which she designed and created at the headquarters of the Massachusetts Medical Society shortly before her final illness. A bronze marker in a granite bench there pays her tribute.
She rejoined her mother, father and a beloved uncle in a graveside service at the Fern Hill Cemetery in Hanson, overlooking a pond on which she used to skate as a child. Dr. MacIver leaves her husband, Dr. John MacIver; a son, J. Robertson MacIver of Voorhees, N.J. and his wife Janet Riggs; another son, Mathew E. MacIver of Hingham, and his wife Diane; a cousin, Frank Wilson of New Brunswick, Canada and his wife Carolyn; and four grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at the First Congregational Church of Chatham, 650 Main St., on Friday, June 1, at — p.m.
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1921 - 2007 (85 years)
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