Alumni Hall of Fame
Academic / Professional Achievement (2022)

Elizabeth Yahl was a member of the St. Marys High School Class of 1922. After graduation, she attended Fort Wayne Business College in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She eventually returned home to work on the Yahl family farm in Noble Township, north of St. Marys, and to work in the medical practice of Doctor Guy Noble, Doctor Harry Noble, and Doctor Vernon Noble.

Eventually, Elizabeth left St. Marys for Washington, D.C. to work as a secretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In Washington, she met and married Fred H. Kuffner and had two children, Jack and Betty Ruth. In the midst of marrying and starting a family, Elizabeth completed her undergraduate academic requirements and entered the Medical School of George Washington University, graduating in 1937 with her Doctor of Medicine Degree.

Following Medical School, Dr. Kuffner, completed an internship at Women’s Hospital of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, from July 1937 – July 1938. She then returned to St. Marys to open a medical practice. During these years, she worked with both Gibbons and Otis Hospitals in Celina, Ohio, and both hospitals in Lima, Ohio.

During World War II, Dr. Kuffner temporarily closed her St. Marys medical practice to volunteer to as the Medical Director of a U.S. Army Ordnance Depot in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, where TNT was manufactured for the armed services. Upon returning to St. Marys, she constructed a new office building for her medical practice and resumed practicing medicine. This building still stands today on the corner of West North Street and North Main Street and is used for other business purposes.

In 1953, Dr. Kuffner enlisted in the U.S. Army to serve in the Korean War. She was only the second woman to be commissioned as an officer in the regular Army and, because of her experience, she was commissioned as a Major. She completed her basic training at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, completing the same training regimen as the males in her company although a special uniform was designed for her.

Dr. Kuffner thought she would be going to Korea, but instead was assigned as Physician in Charge of the Emergency Department at the Tokyo Army Hospital in Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Kuffner absorbed as

much of the Japanese culture as possible during this time, learning Chinese cooking and Japanese doll making. She amassed hundreds of photographs and slides from her experiences and travels in Japan.

After her service, Dr. Kuffner returned once again to St. Marys to continue her medical practice as a family physician and surgeon. Dr. Kuffner was instrumental in the initial construction of Joint

Township District Memorial Hospital and served as Chief-of-Staff. Dr. Kuffner delivered the first girl, boy, twins, and triplets at Joint Township.

Dr. Kuffner was a member of the Auglaize County Medical Society, Ohio State Medical Association, and  the American Medical Association. She also served as a Board Member of the Auglaize School in New Bremen and was instrumental in the building of its current facility. She was also a life - long member of Zion Lutheran Church in St. Marys. Dr. Elizabeth C. Yahl Kuffner passed away on March 19, 1993, and was laid to rest in Elm Grove Cemetery. In 2012, Jack and Alma Kuffner, donated 15.8 acres of Kuffner family land, north of St. Marys, to the Heritage Trails Park District of Auglaize County to establish the Dr. Elizabeth Yahl Kuffner Nature Preserve to share with the public part of the land and nature Jack’s mother loved and revered.

As one of the outstanding women in St. Marys and Auglaize County history, for her trailblazing medical and military service, and as a shining example to young women that indeed a woman can do anything, the

St. Marys Memorial High School Alumni Foundation inducts Dr. Elizabeth Y. Kuffner into the St. Marys Memorial High School Alumni Foundation Hall of Fame for Academic and Professional Achievement.