FAYE RUTH AUSTIN COSENTINO

BROOKSVILLE – Faye Ruth Austin Cosentino died peacefully in the early morning of Nov. 28, 2008. She was born Aug. 30, 1925, in a farmhouse on the Varnumville Road, Brooksville. She attended elementary school in North Brooksville and high school in South Brooksville. She often credited her seafaring, story telling grandfather, Brooks Grindle, with instilling in her at an early age a desire to see the world. The day after she graduated in 1942, she took the train from Ellsworth to Washington, D.C., and “never looked back” until she retired in 1990. Her first job was for the war department, disbursing soldiers’ pay, but as a lifelong sufferer from numerous allergies, she found that Washington, D.C., literally gave her hives. On a trip to New York City, the hives disappeared and she decided, in response to a recruiting poster for the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps, to become a nurse, training at Metropolitan Hospital, Welfare Island, New York. By the time she finished her training, the war had ended. She took the state nursing board exam and was given an assignment as a private duty nurse for a special heart attack patient, the commissioner of New York hospitals, because they said, “I was the only one who could make him behave! He was quite meek with me.” Upon concluding that assignment, Faye worked in the obstetrics unit, where she convinced the physicians to establish better protocols for new mothers, getting them on their feet more quickly after delivery in order to avoid the then-rampant problem of pulmonary embolism. During this period in her life, she met and married Alfonso Cosentino and had her baby daughter without anesthesia, which was quite unusual for the times, at least in a hospital setting. While raising her daughter, she worked part time at Mount Vernon Hospital in a new, two-person intravenous (IV) therapy unit. She then became director of IV therapy at Lawrence Hospital, managing a team of 18 specialists. While working “mother’s hours,” in 1979 she obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in psychology summa cum laude from Mercy College. Faye was fond of saying “If you see something that isn’t right, do something about it, don’t just complain.” While managing the IV team, she noticed that nurses were mixing IV solutions in the wards, under non-sterile conditions. She thought it would be better to have the solutions mixed in the hospital pharmacies under laminar flow hoods. She set about to change current practices, writing to the Center for Disease Control, which asked her to visit headquarters in Bethesda, Md., to discuss her thoughts about what the best practices should be. Faye asked the CDC to create a panel panel of stakeholders, including doctors, pharmacists, drug companies, and filtration equipment manufacturers, with herself and Ada Plummer from Massachusetts General Hospital representing the nursing profession. This panel created protocols that were accepted and then mandated by the CDC. Faye and others traveled to all major metropolitan areas of the U.S. to present their findings. In the 1980s her group took its road show to People’s Republic of China. Faye became a published author of many technical papers and books in her area of specialty, becoming the first nurse to have a paper published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. Retiring from Lawrence Hospital in 1990, at age 65, Faye returned to her childhood town and moved in with her mother, caring for her during her last days. She built a log cabin next door, which turned into an impromptu desktop publishing house for nine books of historical interest to the town: an indexed copy of the George Tapley book of Vital Records; marriage records with bride and groom indexes; three fully indexed volumes documenting all of the town’s 49 cemeteries, including all inscriptions, photos and GPS coordinates; a master index for the trio of cemetery books; a book documenting the service of all military men and women of Brooksville; an indexed copy of Castine’s early vital records; and a genealogy of the descendants of David Austin. For this important body of work, she was awarded a Citation for Excellence in community service by the Daughters of the American Revolution and a citation by the Maine Old Cemetery Association, in 2008. In addition to her research and publishing activities, Faye was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Descendants of the Mayflower, Brooksville Alumni Association and Brooksville Historical Society, where she served as a board member and co-president. She also served on the town’s 911 road naming committee. Faye was tolerant and interested in people of all cultures, without prejudice. Although she became a Catholic for the sake of her daughter, Faye was not a religious person. She classified herself as a realist, often saying “What is, is!” She had her share of great sorrows and disappointments in her life, but maintained an indomitable spirit and optimistic disposition to the end. Faye was predeceased by her father, Blanchard Leon Austin; mother, Edna Mae Grindle Austin; her daughter, Sharon Nicholas; brother, Bruce “Button” Austin; and sisters, Lura Farr, Joyce Sams and Mary Bridges. She is survived by a brother, Bill Austin of Penobscot; a sister, Gail Wohl; a grandson, Jason Nicholas; many nieces and nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews; and special friends, including Maggie Wray and the Brooksville Birthday Bunch. Interment will be 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, at Edgewood Cemetery, Brooksville, with a celebration of her life commencing 2:30 p.m. at Brooksville Town Building. No flowers please, as she was allergic to them. It was her wish that contributions in her memory be donated to Brooksville Historical Society, P.O. Box 91, Brooksville, ME 04617. Arrangements by Jordan-Fernald, 141 South St., Blue Hill.