Nancy Kaye Mueller

COL Nancy McFadin Mueller, age 74, passed away on Saturday, December 24, 2022, in San Antonio, Texas after a lengthy battle with ALS. She was born October 22, 1948 in Evansville, Indiana to Katherine Doris (Uhde) McFadin and Woodrow Ranes McFadin Sr.Nancy grew up on a farm outside Mount Vernon, Indiana. Her passion growing up was to become a nurse. However, after starting nursing school at the University of Evansville, in Evansville, Indiana, she realized what a financial burden the tuition would cause her family. Therefore, she accepted a scholarship through the Army student nurse program. In exchange for paying for her nursing education she committed to serving 4 years as a nurse in the U.S. Army. After graduating she was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the United States Army Nurse Corps.

Nancy’s career as an Army nurse was characterized by her constant advancement as a nursing leader and administrator. The essence of her success was her excellence in nursing practice. Nancy was the epitome of the words we use to indicate sustained outstanding performance in a profession. She was a role model and a mentor. As a nurse practitioner she worked in a very demanding and highly complex specialty as an oncology nurse and enterostomal therapist. Army nursing utilized her expertise in ambulatory care by making her responsible for hospital based ambulatory care services including the emergency room and all specialty clinics. Besides her administrative duties Nancy focused on assisting patients with complex problems and teaching young nurses and corpsmen what they needed to know and to do to be experts in their patient care responsibilities. Nancy’s influence on other professions extended to her relationships with physicians, social workers, physical therapists and nutritionists. Nancy was often the catalyst for bringing providers together to coordinate patient care.

Nancy’s value for patient care services was the reason she was first an assistant chief nurse for a hospital and then was selected to be the assistant chief for the administrative organization that was responsible for all US Army hospitals and clinics throughout the US. While serving in administrative positions Nancy was often asked to speak at professional meetings. Her presentations were always very polished and readily demonstrated her professionalism as a nurse, a nursing administrator and a nursing educator. Nancy’s performance far exceeded the expectations of her positions in Army nursing. She was an organizational leader who routinely made contributions that involved the other five Corps in the Army Medical Department. Her leadership abilities and her specialized knowledge earned her recognition with the award of the Order of Military Medical Merit.Her potential in Army nursing had not been achieved when she decided to retire so that she could join her husband in his urology practice.

Entering a solo private practice of urology was a completely new experience for Nancy. She had never been intimately involved with the care of urology patients, but, as she always did, she embraced the challenge. Before long she was totally in control of the office and loved by both patients and staff. After several years of study, and experience, Nancy took and passed the urology nurse certification exam becoming the first board certified urology nurse in all of San Antonio. Even with all the time needed to run the practice and provide patient care, Nancy found time to become involved in the Society of Urologic Nurses Association (SUNA). She assumed more and more responsibility in national SUNA until in 2005 she became national president of SUNA. Nancy was always very involved with nursing education, both in the Army and in SUNA. She published numerous articles on the urologic care of patients including being the editor and an author of “Telephone Nursing Practice in Adult Urology-A Manual for Urology Nurses” published in 2000. In 2008, after practicing nursing for 38 years Nancy retired from nursing. This year she was inducted as an emeritus Fellow in the newly founded Academy of Urologic Nurses and Associates (FAUNA). On 2 December 2019 the chair of the University of Evansville School of Nursing was endowed in Nancy’s name. The Chair of the School of Nursing will always be known as the Nancy McFadin Mueller Chair of the University of Evansville School of Nursing.

In recognition of Nancy’s long standing excellence in the field of nursing, in 2011 she was named the outstanding alumnus of her high school, Mount Vernon High School, and gave the commencement address.In her spare time Nancy loved gardening, line dancing, attending games of her beloved Spurs and socializing with her family and friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents; sister, Christine Schmitz; and brother, Woodrow McFadin Jr. Nancy is survived by her husband of 29 years, Col Edward J. Mueller, M.D.; daughter, Molly Connors and husband Chris; Sister, Beth McFadin Higgins and husband Brian; grandchildren, Blake, Luke, Wes, and Vince Connors; nieces and nephew, Kate Carter and husband Jon, Andrew Higgins, and Lauren Higgins; nephew, Andy Schmitz and wife Kalah; nieces, Arin Commens and husband Brian as well as numerous other extended family members and a lifetime of friends.

The family will receive friends for visitation at Porter Loring Mortuary North on January 11, 2023 from 7:00 – 9:00 PM.A memorial service will be held on January 12, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. at the Army Residence Community chapel followed by internment with full military honors at Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery at 1:00 p.m.. There will be a reception following the ceremony at the Army Residence Community. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a memorial contribution to the ALS Association of Texas https://alstexas.org/ or the University of Evansville Dunigan School of Nursing.

To view the services for Nancy click here.