Dianne Wunn Cancian

Dianne Cancian, 70, died on May 2, 2021. Born Dianne Wunn, she grew up in Estherville, Iowa. Dianne was the editor of the Estherville High School yearbook and graduated as salutatorian of the Class of 1968. She attended Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing and then entered the US Army Nurse Corps. After serving briefly at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington DC, she transferred to the island of Okinawa, Japan, where she was the head nurse on the pediatric ward. On Okinawa, she met her future husband, Mark Cancian, then a Marine lieutenant just returned from Vietnam. On the night of their first date, they snuck into the officers club pool and were thrown out by the military police. They were later stationed in Georgia and then attended graduate school together in Boston. Dianne received her master’s degree in nursing at Boston College, while Mark received a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School. They were married in 1980. Both left active duty and began to build a life together. In Boston, she taught nursing at Boston College. Their two sons, John and Matthew, were born during this time. She also served in the Army Reserve, as an operating room nurse and as the operations officer of a general hospital. They moved to Washington in 1989 and settled in Arlington, where they raised the children. In 2007, they added daughter Caroline to the family. Dianne continued working as a nursing supervisor, heading a ward at Children’s National Hospital. She also co-directed a project on pediatric AIDS. She later became a school nurse in Arlington and at St. Ann’s School. She was deeply involved in community affairs, serving as president of the Glebe Elementary School PTA, coordinating numerous school trips, and volunteering as a Eucharistic minister at St. Ann’s Catholic Church. The Arlington County school board honored her many contributions with an award in 2000. In her later years, illness reduced and ultimately ended her outside activities. You will Her love and devotion to family will be remembered by her husband of 40 years (Mark), two sisters (Debra and Denise), three children (John, Matthew, Caroline), and five grandchildren (Eldaree, John Jr, Charles, Nora, and Henry). Dianne was preceded in death by her parents, Duane and Dolores, and infant sister Donna. She is interred at Fairfax Memorial Park.