Marjorie Jackson

JACKSON, MARJORIE
Associate professor emeritus and longtime Ann Arbor resident, passed away Thursday, September 5 after a lengthy illness. She was 92. A memorial service celebrating her life will be held at 1 PM Sunday, September 29 in the Kuenzel Room of the Michigan Union, 530 S. State St., Ann Arbor, with a reception to follow. Marjorie was well known in the University of Michigan community, serving as Director of Nursing at the University of Michigan Hospital and then associate professor at the School of Nursing before retiring in 1987. She was an innovator in the standards of nursing practice and was one of the architects in developing the university's clinical nursing specialist graduate program. Many of her students became health care leaders across the state and nation. At the UM hospital, she was clinical director of surgical nursing from 1972-1975 and was named nursing director in 1976. She served on the hospital executive board and was involved in the design of the new hospital. In 1980, she left the hospital staff to become a fulltime faculty member at the nursing school. Throughout her career, she was a strong advocate for the school and her profession, saying upon her appointment as director for the hospital's 1,500 nurses that she would rely on "nurses' education and intellect in making judgments and decisions in nursing care." Marjorie was born in El Paso, daughter of a Texas oil man and an aspiring California actress. She graduated from University High School in Ann Arbor, earned her nursing diploma at UM and in 1948, a bachelor's degree in English. She won a Hopwood Award for her elegant writing. She served in World War II as a Navy nurse, supervising corpsmen in caring for wounded sailors at a Hawaii military hospital. Skills acquired there would serve her later in the burn unit at the UM hospital and she earned recognition for developing a new technique for turning burn patients to ease their intense pain. She earned her masters degree in clinical nursing in the late 1960s, at a time when very few nurses earned graduate degrees. In 1967-69, she was a research associate at the UM Institute for Social Research. She is the author or co-author of books and many articles on nursing and management, including the importance of humor in effective management. She was active in the UM chapter of the Association of University Professors, served as treasurer of the Michigan Association of Nurses, and in retirement volunteered as docent who led tours of the University Art Museum. She was also a staunch supporter of the UM Center for the Education of Women, where she and her late sister Frances endowed the Mullin-Welch lecture series highlighting women of achievement. The series brought such notables as Texas attorney Sarah Weddington who successfully argued Roe vs. Wade in the Supreme Court, popular author Judith Viorst, and this spring, Jill Abramson, executive editor of The New York Times. Marjorie and her former husband Ralph raised four children on Linden Street near campus where couples returning from the war built a tight-knit neighborhood of young families. She retired in 1987 and was honored by former students and colleagues in a ceremony where she received a commendation from the governor. She traveled the world in her retirement and had a summer home in Vermont, but kept her close ties with the university. After living in the Glacier Hills retirement community, she moved to Holland Home's Raybrook Manor in Grand Rapids last winter to be near two of her daughters. She is survived by her children and their spouses, Nancy Crawley (Gary Michael Crawley) and Elizabeth Jackson (John Biel), both of Grand Rapids; Dr. Jo Jackson of Seattle, Wash., and Peter Jackson (Ruth Bartman) of Plymouth; grandchildren, Genevieve, Cody, Marjorie, Joseph, Jim and Michelle; her sister-in-law, Priscilla Jackson of Chittenden, VT; and nieces and nephews. Online condolences may be left at www.simplycremationservice.com.