Sandra Darling Reed

Sandra (Micqui) Reed died at her home at Countryside Village in Stokesdale on Feb. 5, 2026. She had lived in Greensboro for 55 years. She was born April 15, 1938 to Carl and Eldora (Soni) Shaw Reed in Houlton, Maine. She always laughingly referred to being born as far north as possible without being in Canada (or spitting distance, as she joked). She was from a long line of Reeds and Shaws of northern Maine and inherited their wonderful dry sense of humor. She and her brother Terry were always glad that they saved the middle name "Darling" for her and not him. The family moved with her father's career as a teacher and administrator to Boston and finally to Houston Texas, where she graduated from the Kinkaid School.

In 1956 she came to UNC Chapel Hill where she graduated in the 1960 class of the School of Nursing. She then worked at Texas Children's Hospital for a couple of years before getting her Masters degree in Parent-Child Nursing at Boston University. She returned to North Carolina and was teaching at UNC-Chapel Hill when Dr. Eloise Lewis hired her as one of the original six faculty for the new UNC at Greensboro School of Nursing in 1967. She taught fundamentals, med-surg and her beloved pediatrics. . She designed the school pin for the first graduating BSN class in 1970, the same pin that everyone since has worn. She was a leader for faculty, a mentor for new faculty, and a wise colleague. Throughout, there was that inherent Maine common sense and wit. In 1994 she joined her father and brother as the third Doctor in the Reed family, getting her EdD at Chapel Hill while teaching full time.

For her students, she was known for her standards and ability to communicate those in a supportive way. She was loved and respected by students, faculty, and nursing staff with whom she worked at Cone Hospital Pediatrics. She retired from UNCG as a Professor Emerita in 2000, the last of the original six faculty in the School of Nursing.

While addressed as Miss Reed and then Dr. Reed by her students, she was always "Micqui" (pronounced Mickie) to her friends and colleagues. Micqui was an artist. She painted until she decided that she maxed out the gifts for her friends and her own walls. During her retirement, she started quilting and got others "hooked on quilting". She loved to go to quilt shops and to choose fabrics, as her "stash" shows. Many friends were recipients of her lovely quilts. She was generous to her fellow quilters who came to "shop" in her stash.

Micqui is preceded in death by her parents and brother. Survived by a myriad of personal and professional friends, Micqui endeavored to bring positivity into every life she encountered, whether friend or stranger. However, her legacy is most profoundly felt by the extended family of friends she treated like her own for multiple decades. So adored and respected, even in the absence of shared DNA, her essence as a nurturing maternal figure will forever remain; just another beautiful role among the plethora of selfless acts she bestowed upon this world while exhibiting a driven curiosity, an unquenchable desire to share, and a humbling manner of integrity, all distinguished by a grandiose sense of hilarity!

A love of nature, with its meek and most vulnerable, an adoration for beloved canines, and the courageous loyalty of an unconditionally open heart mark the elemental strengths of a force for good we have all known as Micqui. A true gift this entire world received in her. She will be deeply missed. A memorial service to celebrate a life well lived will be held at a later date.