Obituary of Lucy Dorothea Willis

Watch recorded service at https://www.ustream.tv/embed/recorded/114827323?html5ui 

Our beloved sister and aunt Lucy Willis, longtime Professor of Nursing at the University of Saskatchewan, passed away peacefully at age 99 on May 4 2018.

Lucy was born and raised in Moose Jaw.  Her initial training at Toronto Western Hospital as a nurse stimulated a lifelong dedication to nursing education.  After a post-RN Certificate in Teaching at UBC and six years of nursing and education work at Saskatoon’s City Hospital, she joined the faculty of the School of Nursing at the University of Saskatchewan, where she remained until her retirement in 1984.  In the 1950s she spent two scholarship years at Columbia University in New York City before earning a prestigious Ph.D. in Education at UC Berkeley in 1967.  She was the first Saskatchewan nurse to obtain a doctorate, and only the second in all of Canada.  In 1969 she became the School’s third Director, and was largely responsible for its 1973 conversion to the College of Nursing and for the development of its post-RN education programs.  

She remained active in retirement, and in 1988 she published Fifty Years: Just the Beginning, a history of nursing education in Saskatchewan.  For many years she was an active member of Knox United Church.  Lucy enjoyed travel and cruising with her brother Tim, canoeing and birdwatching at her cottage at Pike Lake, reading, cross-stitching and visiting family.  She was an amazing, supportive and involved aunt and we were blessed to have her in our lives for so many years.

She is lovingly remembered by her younger sister Dora (Daisy), 13 nieces and nephews, and 25 grand-nieces and nephews, and by her dear friends Ivan and Zandra Wilson and Marilee Esch.

We thank the wonderful staff at Stonebridge Crossing for their care.

A memorial service will be held Friday May 11 at 11:00 am, at the Saskatoon Funeral Home.  In lieu of flowers please consider donations to the Lucy D. Willis Scholarship, College of Nursing, University of Saskatchewan, 4th Floor, Health Sciences E-Wing, 104 Clinic Place, Saskatoon, SK  S7N 2Z4