Debra Ann (Okland) SCHULTE-GAASCH

OKLAND, SCHULTE-GAASCH, SCHULTE, GAASCH

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/10/2024 at 13:07:02

November 15, 1954 ---– August 26, 2018

Debra Ann Schulte-Gaasch

My beautiful, precious wife and closest friend, Debra Ann Schulte-Gaasch, died peacefully in her sleep in the Canterbury Woods skilled nursing facility in Pacific Grove on August 26, 2018. She was 64. Her six years journey into a rare and little understood dementia, Pick’s Disease, has finally ended. She was a bright sun of love, laughter and luminous joy to me [Ron], to her three children, John, Joe and Jenna, her two surviving sisters, Sharon and Karen, and to so many, many, others.

Deb was born in Clarion, Iowa, on November 15, 1954, the daughter of Marlowe and Carol Okland. With a doctorate and as an RN, Deb had a successful career as a nursing educator. She was the Director of Community Hospital’s aureen Church Coburn School of Nursing, located on the Monterey Peninsula College campus, for 25 years. Always a creative and far-sighted leader, one of her many accomplishments was the creation of the successful and widely emulated Men in Nursing program. This program, which provided guidance and support to men wanting to become registered nurses (a field once traditionally entered almost solely by women), has been used as a model in nursing programs across the United States. Members of her faculty, upon learning of her passing, shared some of their thoughts about her: “...one of the greatest bosses I ever had”, “... a good friend, mentor, and ‘big sister’”, and “Deb will be forever missed, gone far too soon. We strive to carry on her legacy...”

Deb loved running. In the beginning, as friends and colleagues at Community Hospital, we discovered our mutual love of running. (I asked if she would like to go for a run together. She said yes, and that’s how our relationship began.) We started running together, running many local races, such as the Big Sur Half Marathon (several times), and Run in the Name of Love. Although her physical form is lost to us, she is not gone from us. Her vibrant love, warmth and generous heart will live in our memories forever. We who knew her and loved her are richer for the gift of her having been in our lives.

A memorial service for Deb and celebration of her life will be held in the Canterbury Woods auditorium in Pacific Grove on Thursday, November 15, 2018, from 5-7 p.m.

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/pacific-grove-ca/debra-schulte-gaasch-7973260