In 1890, two astute and determined women arrived separately in a San Diego down on its luck and set in motion a chain of events that would transform the health care of their neighbors. Pioneering newspaperwoman Ellen Browning Scripps and Mother Mary Michael Cummings, intrepid Catholic nun, built the best hospitals and research institution of their time - on the strength of their own convictions - and independently laid the foundations of modern-day Scripps Health. With historical documents and contemporary interviews, longtime Scripps physician Sarita Eastman makes clear the lasting imprint of the founders and their successors everywhere in San Diego from the place names of Miramar, Scripps Ranch, and Carmel Valley, to the nationally honored health care alliance of today, stretching from the county s north coast to its southern border. Archival photographs selected by designer Christina Barrila illustrate the lively text and truly immerse the reader in good company. Sarita Eastman is a physician and poet whose first non-fiction book, A Trail of Light: The Very Full Life of Dr. Anita Figueredo, won the San Diego Book Award for biography in 2010. She was a long-time Scripps pediatrician with a specialty in development and behavior until her retirement from the practice of medicine in 2011 to devote herself to writing full time. She lives with her husband in Rancho Santa Fe, California.