Steve Richardson brought his wife, Sally, to tears, as well as the couple's CPA, when he announced he wanted to honor her nursing career by establishing an endowed faculty fellowship in Sally's name.

“We've been married for 27 years and it is the most thoughtful thing he's ever done,” Sally said. “I think it's something he's been thinking about for a long time, but it came as a complete surprise.”

In fact, Steve contemplated honoring his wife for some time. When he discovered the school's need for supporting faculty, he knew the timing was perfect to recognize his wife's career.

“I've gone through life thinking my wife has made a much greater contribution to the world than I,” Richardson said. “I believe nurses in general help people in more productive ways than they are sometimes recognized or appreciated for. I thought this was the way to tell her how much I loved her.”

Their gift ensures that today's students receive high quality instruction that will allow them to tackle any position that comes their way—just as it gave Sally the necessary training to adapt to a variety of nursing experiences when Steve's job required them to relocate. Sally is also helping to appeal to her 1978 classmates to "take a seat."

Sally graduated from the school in 1978 and married Steve who had earned his BS in Business Administration from Mizzou a year earlier.

After college, the couple moved to Houston where Sally worked at the Texas Heart Institute in an open-heart recovery room before transferring to the neurological intensive care unit.

When Steve's job took them to St. Louis, Sally drew on these experiences as she joined St. John's Mercy Medical Center 's coronary care unit. However after the birth of her son, Matthew, in 1980, she moved to the operating room where she spent two years as a surgical nurse.

"Because my husband's job required us to relocate so frequently I learned how to adapt to new employment situations,” Sally said. “It was challenging at times but it also made life more interesting to learn new skills in the field of medicine and surgery.  Having good organizational skills were one of the attributes that a nurse must learn from that first day in clinicals.”

Sally found her favorite and most permanent position in 1983 on a return move to Texas.

As a private scrub nurse for a Dallas-based plastic surgeon, Dr. Melvyn Lerman, Sally not only first assisted the surgeon with surgery in the hospital but also ran the in-office operating room, did all patient teaching and provided all the pre and post-operative patient care.

“I loved working so closely with this doctor,” Sally said. “He allowed me to work with a lot of independence, and I felt like I had more of an impact with patients.  Dr. Lerman is one of Dallas' finest plastic surgeons. He really cared about his patients and this, in turn, made me strive to give the best patient care I could.”

The job offered her the rare opportunity to help patients through pre-op, surgery and post-op care, thus allowing her to draw on her previous clinical experience.

"It was very gratifying to follow a patient for the entire time of their care and see the final outcome," Sally said.

While most associate plastic surgery with a youth-obsessed Hollywood culture, many of Sally's patients required reconstructive surgery for skin cancer and breast cancer as well as car accidents and other traumatic injuries. Dr. Lerman's practice also included surgery of the hand and wide variety of cosmetic procedures.

While working for Dr. Lerman, Sally and Steve welcomed the birth of their second child, Molly, in 1986.

After seven years at the plastic surgery clinic the family returned to St. Louis where she worked in a surgery center as a staff nurse. However the move to Missouri was a short hiatus—Steve's job relocated his family to Mexico City, Mexico, in 1991.

Without a Mexican work visa, Sally devoted her energy to raising her 10-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter for the next five years. 

During this time she volunteered at her children's school, The American School Foundation, as a room mother, early childhood coordinator, book fair chairperson, secretary of the PTA and helped to raise more than $100,000 for her children's school by serving as the co-chairperson of the school's 25th annual art fair. The family also traveled all over Mexico .

Upon returning to the United States, Sally worked as staff nurse in a Dallas surgery center but decided to retire when the family moved to Chicago six months later. The family then moved to San Diego for two years and has now been living in Dallas for the past six years. During her present time in Dallas she has spent her time volunteering at Molly's school for the PTA and the Softball Booster Club.

written by Owen Skoler

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