I regret having to inform all former students about this: http://www.nola.com/education/index....lsu_nursi.html

Dr. Helen Dunn, who rose from employment as a doctor's office nurse to dean of the LSU School of Nursing, died Monday in Grand Junction, Colo., where she lived after retirement, her family said. She was 85.

Dr. Dunn led the nursing school for 20 years, retiring in 1996.

A native of Oklahoma, Dr. Dunn grew up in rural northwest Arkansas and like her two sisters, entered nursing. She earned a nursing diploma, the usual form of nursing education at the time, in 1947, the same year she married James Dunn, a young geologist.

Her husband's career in the oil industry took the couple to Houston, and in 1961, to New Orleans.

Over the years, working sometimes at nights when her family was young, Dr. Dunn worked as a hospital floor nurse, a school nurse and as a nurse in a doctor's office in Houston.

Meanwhile, she continued going to school.

Eleven years after earning her nursing diploma she earned a college degree. Five years after that she earned a master's, and 11 years after that, a doctorate in nursing.

By then she had joined the LSU nursing faculty. In 1976, she became the dean.

"She constantly talked about the value of education, both as means of self-improvement and for the benefit of others. She constantly drummed that into us," said daughter Jeannie Dunn Dowell, an elementary school principal who earned a doctorate in education.

Later in life Dr. Dunn and her husband helped pay for the college educations of their five grandchildren, Dowell said.

Dr. Dunn sought balance between her personal and professional lives. Her daughter recalled that because her mother grew up without easy access to books, she read aloud from many of the children's classics to her two girls, one of whom grew up to become a nurse.

Her marriage to Mr. Dunn lasted 53 years, Dowell said.

Besides Dowell, Dr. Dunn is survived by another daughter, Teri Dunn of Grand Junction; a sister, JoAnn Donathan of Temple Terrace, Fla.; a brother, Billy Ashley of La Marque, Texas, five grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

A memorial service Saturday will be held Saturday in Grand Junction. Callahan-Edfast Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.