TAMWORTH will gather to bid farewell to icon of the city whose work helped shape a local institution.
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Barbara Moore has been remembered fondly with an outpouring of grief since her death, aged 89, last week.
She has been remembered as an "icon and institution" and a "forward thinker who treated everyone as equal and encouraged everyone to work to their full potential".
Former long-serving Tamworth hospital physician Peter Wakeford worked with Miss Moore, who he said was the last matron of the facility.
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She then became the first 'don' of Tamworth, director of nursing in 1971.
Dr Wakeford said his former colleague was a "pretty formidable person" who "wasn't intimidated by anybody".
"She ran a very tight ship and she was much respected," Dr Wakeford said.
She presided over a period of great change at the hospital and helped build its good reputation, the retired doctor said.
But her legacy lives on in Tamworth, decades after her retirement.
"She was there when there were dreams of a new hospital," he said.
"I don't know precisely her involvement with that new hospital; it was the result of a lot of input and dreams and some of it would have been hers."
Miss Moore worked in the nursing unit at Tamworth hospital across 34 years where she was still remembered as a "great woman".
Despite retiring from the hospital more than 30 years ago, he legacy was still strongly felt among local health professionals.
Miss Moore started work at Tamworth hospital in 1954, broken-up by a brief stint abroad, she was eventually named the director of nursing in 1971, a position she held until retirement in 1988.
She was later awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 1990 for her services to nursing.
Some remembered her as a "tough taskmaster", but ultimately "a good boss who knew her craft well" and a "great woman for many reasons, loved her staff and patients".
Miss Moore continued to give her time to the hospital following her retirement as a volunteer with the auxiliary where she quietly served in the background cooking, making cups of tea and supporting all functions with quite words of encouragement to new members.
There will be a funeral mass at St Nicholas Catholic Church on Thursday from 10am. Miss Moore was a life member of the Tamworth hospital auxiliary which will celebrate its 80th anniversary on Saturday at the Oak Tree retirement village from 2pm.
In the last five years, the auxiliary has gifted more than $156,000 raised through a variety of stall and initiatives.