Mildred Montag, Professor Emerita of Teachers College, died January 21st at the Westhampton Care Center. She was 95.

Montag received a master's degree and educational doctorate from Columbia University. The doctoral dissertation she wrote at Teachers College, which explored the creation of technical training through associate degree programs, had a sweeping effect on the way nurses are trained in America.

Montag was born in Struble, Iowa, on August 10, 1908. She earned bachelor's degrees from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., and the University of Minnesota, where she also served on the faculty at the School of Nursing.

She received her master's degree from Columbia University in 1938, at which time she began a number of prestigious nursing positions, including tenures as instructor at St. Luke's Hospital's School of Nursing and director of the School of Nursing at Adelphi University. While at Adelphi, Montag served as director of the first 25 nursing students admitted under the Nurse Training Act of 1943 and participated in the United States Nurse Cadet Corps.

From the dissertation she wrote at Teachers College in 1948, the associate degree program in nursing evolved nationwide. In 1958, Montag used funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to implement pilot programs based on her thesis at seven college sites. By 1994, there were 868 such programs at community and junior colleges.

Montag lived with her friend Ruth Harley, 102, for 64 years.

Published Monday, Sep. 13, 2004