In Memoriam: Anne Wuerker

Anne Wuerker, retired associate professor of nursing at the UCLA School of Nursing, died Oct. 12 at her home in Westlake Village, Calif., after a brief illness. She was 76.

Wuerker taught mental health and psychiatric content to graduate nursing students at both the advanced practice and doctoral levels. She was known internationally for her research in family therapy, particularly in expressed emotion, and was one of the founders of the neuropsychiatric program for M.S.N. students. She was a member of the Academic Senate's Graduate Council, serving as chair from 2003-2004.

After retiring from UCLA, Wuerker remained active in gardening, bird watching, keeping up with extended family, camping in the Maine and California deserts, and backpacking in Yosemite and on the John Muir trail in the High Sierras of California.

She made two trips to Haiti in support of her work at the Jean Wilfrid Albert Medical Clinic in the village of Cherident in the Grande Colline mountain region. Wuerker was inspired by her work with the Cherident medical clinic, focusing primarily on malnutrition of infants and health education.

Shortly after completing her work in Haiti, she was diagnosed with cancer. Wuerker leaves behind her husband, Ralph Frederick Wuerker, a retired research scientist in the Department of Physics; her sister, Mary Evangeline Johnson; six children; 15 grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, friends may send donations to the Anne Wuerker Scholarship Fund in Neuro-Psychiatric Nursing at the UCLA School of Nursing, or to the Cherident clinic.