Retired Nurse Donates Paintings
Mary "Cappi" Honderich's watercolors
Mary Honderich, known to her friends as “Cappi” is a retired nurse who has painted for almost half a century. Cappi wanted to put her paintings to use and has offered to donate a group of them to the Community Health Partnership to raise money for the small grants fund.
Cappi was born almost 90 years ago in Pennsylvania and educated in New York State. She received her R.N. diploma from Charles S. Wilson Memorial Hospital in 1938—almost 66 years ago! Later, in 1953, she earned her B.S. in nursing at Lewis and Clark College and a Masters degree in Nursing Education with additional coursework in Public Health from University of Oregon Medical School, as OHSU was then called.
Her work experience included working for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota, as an Army nurse in Texas and Oklahoma, and a short stint at the Veterans’ Administration Hospitals before she came to Oregon in 1946. She began her public health career at the City of Portland Bureau of Health. After three years there she went to Salem, working for the State Department of Education Health Occupation Section visiting practical nursing programs at Community Colleges around the state.
From there she began work for Chemeketa Community College to set up a 2 year R.N. program and then directed it for 10 years until she retired to her home along the Abiqua River where she has spent hours in her art room painting.
Cappi has been painting since the early 1950s; her first teacher was Sr. Mary Rosina, then the art teacher at St. Mary’s Academy. Through the years she has also participated in painting holidays with David Huddelston and she still is going strong. Currently she is mostly doing small paintings, but has done larger pieces as well; the largest of her works measures 48”x60” Watercolor, pastel and even oils are the media she favors. She has also started making copies of her work so more people can enjoy what she produces.
For more information on viewing or purchasing a Cappi Watercolor, please contact Community Health Partnership.
PHOTOS: (top) Mary Cappi with display, (middle) Cappi with Mary Lou Hennrich (left) and Billi Odegaard, (bottom) Cappi display at recent Genius Breakfast.
