UC nursing professor emerita launches scholarship in honor of son, grandson
The scholarship supports students in family nurse practitioner specialty programs
Jan Dyehouse
By: Katie Coburn
After dedicating 40 years to various research, teaching and leadership roles at the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing, professor emerita Jan Dyehouse, PhD, planned to create a scholarship fund within the college, but was not sure of the details. When her 57-year-old son, Tom, and 27-year-old grandson, Graeme, tragically passed away in a scuba diving accident on Dec. 23, 2018, it became clear. In the fall of 2019, she launched The Graeme and Tom Dyehouse, MD, Memorial Scholarship Fund in their honor.
The scholarship supports UC College of Nursing students pursuing a family nurse practitioner degree. Tom Dyehouse, a celebrated physician and alumnus of UC College of Medicine, worked closely with nurse practitioners who he greatly admired at a family wellness practice in Washington State. “He really appreciated working with family nurse practitioners, so I thought I’d create a scholarship to support the education of someone interested in pursuing that specialty,” Jan Dyehouse says.
Her contributions to nursing education extend beyond well beyond the scholarship fund. In 1960, after earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Mount St. Joseph University, Dyehouse landed her first job, which she calls her “first love,” as a community health nurse in Cincinnati. She eventually took time off to raise children, but later returned to school at UC to receive her master’s in psychiatric nursing in 1972. “I always wanted to teach in the classroom,” Dyehouse says. “That’s why I got my master’s degree.” A year later, she joined the college’s faculty and, in 1989, she earned her PhD in sociology from UC.
Over the course of her 40-year career at the college, Dyehouse says she has “never been bored.” She has done everything from teaching psychiatric nursing to serving as department head of community health administration in psychiatric nursing, director of the RN to BSN program and interim associate dean for research. She also received $2.6 million in federally funded grants to support her research on substance and alcohol abuse.
“UC College of Nursing is such a wonderful place because there are so many opportunities for teaching, research and community service,” says Dyehouse, who won the college’s 125th Anniversary Award in 2014 and was chosen for UC’s Outstanding Alumni Award in 2020. “I just think the college’s contribution to nursing education is fantastic and I wanted to do something special to support our students.”
In addition to her new scholarship fund, Dyehouse, who is now retired, has donated to the college for 20-plus years.
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