Mayo Clinic Values in Focus: Stewardship

Mayo Medical Laboratories introduces “Mayo Clinic Values in Focus.” Each month, this series will focus on Mayo Clinic’s values and feature quotes and stories from our founders that exemplify those values.


This month's featured value is Stewardship.

"Plant the seeds today that you will never see.”
– Mother Alfred Moes

Mother Alfred Moes may have been the greatest influence in impressing the Mayo Clinic value of stewardship. Leading the Sisters of Saint Francis in both teaching and healing, she was a true steward of the Rochester community, working to manage and serve many of its needs.

When a devastating tornado highlighted the necessity for health care in Rochester, Mother Alfred took prompt action to ensure this need was met. Identifying the solution and seeing the resources for it already present, she garnered the support necessary to found a hospital and brought together the Mayo physicians and Franciscan Sisters to run it. Mother Alfred’s persistence in managing for the future of the community led to the establishment of Saint Mary’s Hospital, a key component in the growth of Mayo Clinic, still meeting the needs of the Rochester community more than a century later.

“Never allow yourself to borrow from the future.”
– William J. Mayo

In his own right, Dr. William J. Mayo was also a staunch proponent of working with the needs of the future in mind. A steward of science, he recognized the importance of not only his own efforts to advance the field of medicine but of helping others in the pursuit as well to ensure continued progress. He noted, “It is a great thing to make scientific discoveries of rare value, but it is even greater to be willing to share these discoveries and to encourage other workers in the same field of scientific research.”

Through both Mother Alfred Moes and William J. Mayo, M.D., the value of stewardship was firmly cemented into the focus of Mayo Clinic from the start.

Today this core value is defined as:
STEWARDSHIP: To sustain and reinvest in our mission and extend communities by wisely managing our human, natural, and material resources.

Molly Dee

Molly Larsen is the Web Content Coordinator at Mayo ClinicLaboratories. She is responsible for internal and external communications pertaining to the website and information technology, as well as editing content on MayoClinicLabs.com. She has worked at Mayo Clinic since 2015. Outside of work, Molly enjoys working out, reading, Harry Potter trivia, and spending time with her family and friends, including Seamus, the labrador/mastiff puppy.