In memory

Phyllis Reid Nordstrom, BSN ’40
Jeanne Jones Felder, BSN ’43
Gretchen Birkholz Short, BSN ’43
Marion Meyer Glatiotis, BSN ’45
Patricia Edwards Hagel, BSN ’45
Lorraine Tourville Goetz, BSN ’46
Mary John McKenna, BSN ’46
Helen M. Olson, BSN ’46
Dorothy B. Schroeder, BSN ’46
June Engleson, BSN ’47
Eleanor Anderson Giusti, BSN ’47
Rose Bannai Kitahara, BSN ’47
Mary H. Nelson, BSN ’47
Carley Petersen Engwall, BSN ’49
Yvonne Shepard Whalley, BSN ’50
Mary Hanses Murai, BSN ’51
Wanda Rauma, BSN ’51
Eunice Albright Dettman, BSN ’52
Elizabeth (Cookie) Alsaker Steiner, BSN ’54
Jeanne Belanger Valentine, BSN ’54
Claire Sill O’Connor Frisch, BSN ’56
Dorothy Pecholt Geis, BSN ’56
Verona M. Keith, BSN ’56
Alice Hoiland Larson, BSN ’56
Barbara Peters Schulz, BSN ’56
E. Jeschke, BSN ’57
Barbara Farm Medeck, BSN ’57
Audrey Hagen Wagner, BSN ’57
Gwili Olson Blair, BSN ’58
Shirley Roningen Lundquist, MS ’58
Laurie Walther Sprungman, BSN ’58
Genevra Howson Harris, BSN ’60
Marge A. Pederson, BSN ’60
Rita Rosenthal Goldfarb, BSN ’61
Elizabeth B. Simon, BSN ’61
Joyce E. Tow, BSN ’63
Priscilla Pol Vineyard, BSN ’63
Judith Hinds Olmsted, BSN ’64
Dorothy Makinen Carlson, BSN ’67
Stephanie L. Blair, BSN ’68
Josephine (Dodie) Lorenz Gerding, BSN ’68
Marjorie Brackee Masley, BSN ’71
Janet F. Wilcox, BSN ’74
Isabelle K. Hegarty, BSN ’75
Mary C. Schroepfer, MS ’76
Blossom Santamaa Gullickson, MS ’78, BSN ’53
Colleen Wold Atkinson, BSN’79
Jane Rengo Flickinger, MS ’81, BSN ’60
Pamela Gisborne Murphy, BSN ’83
Jacqueline Smith Tornoe, MS ’86
Ann Juntti, BSN ’87
Barbara Braun Schwartz, BSN ’89
Kathleen L. Brandenburg, MS ’97, BSN ’87
Abigail (Abby) R. Anderson, BSN ’14

Remembering

Karin L. Alaniz, PhD’91, MS’77, passed away April 30, 2021. She was with the School of Nursing from 1977-2015, taught pediatrics, human growth and development, and the freshman guarantee seminar from its inception until 2014 when she was diagnosed with a glioblastoma. She served as the Nursing College Board adviser for decades, on a variety of all University committees, and on the board of the American Lung Association in Minnesota at one time serving as board president. Alaniz was also among the first University of Minnesota School of Nursing educators to receive the DAISY award in 2011. In 2015, Alaniz endowed a scholarship for undergraduate nursing students and in 2016, she received a U of M Alumni Service award. 

John H. Borg, MPH ’76, BSN ’74, passed away March 28, 2021. Borg first worked in the health care field as a medic in Vietnam. After his discharge, earned BSN and MPH degrees at the U of M. He held several executive hospital administration positions supporting nursing care. Borg was honored as one of the 100 Distinguished Nursing Alumni at the School’s Centennial Gala in 2009 and served on the school’s Foundation Board from 2008-2011. John and his wife Karen have been lifelong supporters of the University, crediting his alma mater for providing him with an excellent education that led to great professional opportunities.

Dorothy Pecholt Geis, BSN ’56, passed away Dec. 17, 2020. After more than 30 years of teaching nursing at the University of Minnesota and North Dakota, she implemented one of the first grants to help children with terminal cancer die peacefully at home. In recognition of her lifelong efforts, she received the KARE 11 Eleven Who Care Award in 1994 and was honored as one of the 100 Distinguished Nursing Alumni at the school’s Centennial Gala in 2009. 

Blossom Santamaa Gullickson, MS ’78, BSN ’53, passed away April 4, 2021. She devoted her nursing career to teaching at the University of Minnesota and St. Olaf College. In 1991 she was honored with the School of Nursing Alumni Society Board’s Excellence in Innovation award, citing her innovation in educational interventions and collaboration in teaching.

Floris E. King passed away April 12, 2021. King was professor emeritus of nursing at University of Minnesota, with a specialty in research on continuity of care for the elderly in Canada, United States and Finland. In 1976 she came to the University of Minnesota School of Nursing as associate dean and was elected director of Graduate Studies. Her first career was that of concert pianist with a music degree from University of Toronto. King received many recognitions and awards but she especially cherished two: her election into Delta Omega Honor Society at the University of Michigan and her Title Deed Lady Floris Ethia King PhD bestowed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 2004.

Sister Joan Tuberty passed away on June 26, 2021. She served as a nursing instructor, consultant and clinical specialist in psychiatric nursing with the School of Nursing in the 1970s.