Lois W. Gage

It is with great sadness that we share with you that our mother and grandmother, Professor emerita Lois Edna Waite Gage, PhD, RN, FAAN, passed away at 89 years of age in Ann Arbor, Michigan on June 28th. Her path began in Ipswich, Massachusetts and took her across the United States, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. She died peacefully in her sleep, still smiling after a last conversation about her family. She is survived by two children, two grandchildren, a son-in-law, nine nieces and nephews and their children and grandchildren, a cousin and his offspring. Her unrelenting devotion to and pride in her children and grandchildren have helped us become who we are. Her influence lives on in the achievements of multiple generations of students in the United States and around the world whom she felt honored to have taught and for whom she developed curricula and graduate degree programs which have weathered the test of time. Her legacy will also continue in the many professional communities in public health, community mental health and primary care nursing to which she contributed pioneering initiatives in Michigan, nationally and internationally as a scholar, initiator of community clinical practice and policy-developer. She will be remembered for her passion, humor, self-deprecation and determination, tenacious New England identity, and courage and steadfast advocacy for women and populations at risk in her own country and globally. She received multiple honors and awards for excellence, for pioneering initiatives, and for her life’s work from her schools, her peers and high government leadership well into her eighties. Her guidepost was always the well-being of her family, friends and community in the broadest sense of the term.We will be celebrating her life at St. Francis Church in Ann Arbor, 2250 East Stadium Blvd, on August 12th, 2011. Visitation begins at 11 a.m., the liturgy at 12 noon. In lieu of flowers we would request donations be made to the Haiti Nursing Foundation (www.haitinursing.org). www.muehligannarbor.com