In August 2002, Laura Rohricht celebrated her fiftieth year of nursing in Brisbane. Hers has been a remarkable career, characterised by adversity, opposition and the disciplinary nature of nursing training in the 1950s. The strength of character she displayed in her youth would have been defined by many, especially by her father, as inappropriate for a girl. Yet it was this strength that played a critical role in enabling her to establish and maintain her career. This biographical profile of Laura Rohricht draws on interviews with Laura herself and conversations with several of her colleagues and friends.