Captain Nellie Jane DeWitt was the sixth and final Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps and became its first director.

Duty stations included Newport, Rhode Island; Portsmouth, Virginia; Puget Sound; Washington, DC; San Diego, CA; Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

CAPT DeWitt took over as Superintendent in April 1946 at a time when the Nurse Corps was shrinking in size due to demobilization after World War II.

She consulted for the Girl Scouts on health matters, was president of the Susquehanna County Unit of the American Cancer Society, and was a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania.

At the time of her death, she had returned to the DC area and was living at Vinson Hall, the Navy and Marine Corps Retirement Center, in McLean, Virginia.