Doris Marie Mizell

The family moved to the farming area south of Birch Bay, WA in 1944 where Doris completed her schooling in the Blaine School system, graduating in 1961.

The family was Mennonite Brethren and Doris gave her heart to Jesus there at a young age. Upon profession of her faith, she was baptized in the First Baptist Church, Ferndale, WA, at age 14, where her family had transferred their membership.

Following high school, she attended the University of Washington School of Nursing, Swedish Division, graduating in March 1961, as a member of the Student Nurse Program, US Army Ready Reserve. She was commissioned a 2/Lt in the Army Nurse Corps, April 1961 and served until January 1967. During this time she was assigned to Fitzsimons General Hospital Denver; the 130th Station Hospital, Heidelberg; Madigan General Hospital, Tacoma; and US Army Hospital, Ft. Riley, Kansas.

Doris met her future husband, Louis L. Mizell, a Medical Service Corps Medevac pilot, when both were temporarily assigned to military units sent to Iran to assist with an earthquake disaster in 1962. After a long distance courtship, they married in the Madigan General Army Hospital Chapel in August 1967. Louis left for Vietnam one week after the wedding.

Upon his return from Vietnam, they were transferred to Ft. Riley, Kansas, where Doris was posted until she left the service prior to the birth of her son, Michael, in 1967. Louis and Doris took adult instruction in the Lutheran Church and were confirmed in Junction City, Kansas, at the same time that Michael was baptized. It was here, two years later, when daughter Suzanne was born and the family was complete.

Following Louis’ retirement from the military in 1969, the family settled in University Place, WA. After working as an RN in several Tacoma hospitals while raising her family, she was re-commissioned into the US Army Nurse Corps (ANC) in May 1974 and continued to serve until her retirement in July, 1991. The family moved with her to Fitzsimons General Hospital, Denver; USAH Ft. Knox, KY; Ft. Sam Houston, Texas for the completion of her MSN at the Health Science Center there in 1978; USAH Ft. Bragg, NC; and to Washington, DC, where Doris was the Professional Development Officer on the General Staff of the ANC. Her final assignment was as the Chief Nurse of the US Army Hospital, Berlin, West Germany. She was assigned there during the exciting time when the Wall came down.

Her assignments over the years varied from staff nurse, head nurse, supervisor, instructor of corpsman school, assistant director of the Army’s IC course, to administrative tasks such as infection control and quality assurance. She was a member of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Tacoma; Military Officer Association of America; Army Nurse Corps Association VFW Post #318, Olympia; American Historical Society of Germans out of Russia.

Doris was blessed with a true faith in Christ as her Savior and a family that was able to allow her to complete her career while maintaining a household with the help of Louis. Over the years, and in the many varied churches the family attended during all the moves, she sang in choir, taught and worked in Sunday Schools, and worked on Altar Guilds.

LTC Mizell was preceded in death by her husband, LTC Louis L. Mizell; daughter, Suzanne Mizell Fish; parents, 4 brothers and 2 sisters.

Her son, Michael (with Keri) Mizell and son-in-law, Chris Fish, along with 4 grandchildren survive her.

Funeral services will be on November 19, 2015, at 10:00am at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 140 E. 56th St., Tacoma, with viewing to be held at the Church at 9:00am.

Military Honors will be rendered at Tahoma National Cemetery at 1:30pm. Arrangements are by Mills & Mills Funeral Home.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Lutheran World Relief & Human Care or Good Shepherd Endowment Fund.