When the 82-year-old Clara Barton retired in 1904, Mabel Boardman inspired revisions in the Red Cross congressional charter. Her own Red Cross tenure began when the revised charter went into effect in 1905.

Boardman gave her time and talents to the Red Cross for the greater part of four decades. Especially fruitful were the first ten years, during which, aided by carefully chosen professional staff, she revitalized the organization. Energetic, capable, and methodical, Miss Boardman made possible the national network of Red Cross services that enhance the lives of all Americans today.

Mabel Boardman was impatient for change. Conservative by upbringing, yet moved to conscientious experiment in the interest of the general welfare, she lost no time in putting her new ideas into effect -- within a teamwork of efficiency and strict accounting that brought credit to the organization.

In the revitalized Red Cross, disaster preparedness and relief and services to members of the armed forces were to remain primary concerns. But under Mabel Boardman's guidance, many new Red Cross programs were to get their start. The Red Cross was to become a force in public health nursing and in dietetics and a leader in life-saving and first aid training. It was to initiate the sale of Christmas Seals in the fight against tuberculosis and to work with nursing organizations in enrolling nurses as a reserve for wartime and disaster service. Mabel Boardman took a special interest in the formation and direction of Red Cross Home Service, the Nurses Aide Corps, the Motor Corps, and the famed Gray Ladies.

Always a volunteer, Mabel Boardman held the title of Secretary of the American National Red Cross. When offered the organization's highest executive position, she refused it. But "Miss Boardman was the chief, make no mistake about that," said people who worked with her in those early days.

Mabel Boardman's success in achieving a strong, truly national Red Cross was due largely to her determination that volunteers should be kept "at the ready" nationwide to provide Red Cross services whenever needed.