Alumnae Profile

Victoria Ling Beckett ’45

One year after she retired from practicing internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, “I got awfully bored,” says Victoria Ling Victoria ’45. She decided to take creative writing classes; “I just loved it,” she says. In four years, Victoria had completed her memoir, Living Medicine.

Writing the story of her life was a “mind-opening experience,” says Victoria. As she worked on it, memories that were tucked away “came forward again” in her mind. “It was hard work, to tell you the truth,” she says, “but it was worth it.”

It is a story worth telling. Victoria was born in 1923 near Beijing, China; her father was the dean of Nakai University, her mother taught English. When she was eight years old, she moved with her family to Cuba, where her father was posted as a diplomat.

Victoria was twelve years old in 1935 when the family moved back to the Chinese capitol of Nanjing. Two years later, Japan invaded China. Her family fled before the bombing started, and made it to Shanghai. “It was a frightening situation, but we managed,” she says.

News arrived that the Japanese were planning a take-over of Shanghai; so Victoria’s mother put her and her sister, at seventeen and sixteen years old, on a boat heading for the United States. They arrived at San Francisco, then boarded a train and crossed the country to attend Blackstone Junior College near Richmond, Virginia. “My mother thought it was important for girls to be educated,” says Victoria; “I had a pretty remarkable mother.”

In Virginia, Victoria finished her high school education, did two years of college, and decided to pursue a career as a physician. Victoria knew she needed strong science classes to get to medical school, and came to Mount Holyoke with a scholarship. As part of the scholarship, Victoria lived in a co-op house, waited tables, and set up lab experiments.

After graduating Phi Beta Kappa, Victoria’s adventures continued as she attended the University of Michigan’s medical school, and practiced medicine in Detroit, Michigan, Dublin, Ireland, and then at the Mayo Clinic.

Victoria hopes that young women, particularly, will read her book, and that it inspires them to “reach for their highest potential,” she says. “In today’s world, even more is possible,” says Victoria; young women “should go ahead and do it!”

Victoria will donate all book royalties to Doctors Without Borders, the international medical aid organization.

—By Erica Winter ’92

I have come to believe that each of us has the power to change our environment. To exercise this power requires courage, drive, and a passion for your cause. These are qualities we all possess—they are not monopolized by heroes, goddesses, or super humans. We can all put our thumbprints on the world. — Elizabeth C. Kramer ’96, baccalaureate address, 1996