Fund honors longtime UNK student health director Gloria Tye
ABOUT THIS PHOTO: Gloria Tye (center) holds a portrait of her mother, Freda Block, who was a nurse, and is joined by her daughter, Deborah Tye Brekke (right) and granddaughter, Lauren Brekke. Each of them is a nurse.
Longtime nurse and former student health director Gloria G. Tye of Kearney has been honored with a named gift to support health science education at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
The Robert C. Rosenlof Foundation and Pratt-Heins Foundation together made a $100,000 gift commitment to the University of Nebraska Foundation to establish the Gloria G. Tye Health Science Excellence Fund. The fund will be used by the university toward construction of the Health Science Education Complex to be built on the west side of campus.
Tye was a nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney before becoming director of student health at UNK in 1984, a position she held until retiring in 1994. On campus, she earned the respect and admiration of students, faculty and administration for her professionalism and dedication to students and public health issues while also enhancing relationships between area physicians and the UNK Student Health Center.
“Gloria Tye’s commitment to nursing and public health is remarkable,” said Charles Bicak, UNK senior vice chancellor for academic and student affairs. “She served admirably as director of student health services and is a passionate advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness, including during a time early on when advocacy wasn’t particularly popular.”
Tye, who is married to Thomas W. Tye, was the first to receive a nursing degree from the Lincoln campus of the UNMC College of Nursing. She was a nurse at Lincoln General Hospital before moving to Kearney.
About the passion for her profession, Gloria Tye said: “If I were to choose another career today, I’d still choose nursing.”
Tye’s family includes four generations of Nebraska nurses. Her mother, Freda Block, was a nurse in Cozad. Gloria’s daughter, Deborah Tye Brekke, studied nursing at Clarkson College in Omaha and is the cardiovascular rehabilitation coordinator at Mobridge Regional Hospital in Mobridge, S.D., and her granddaughter, Lauren Brekke, studies nursing at the Kearney campus of the UNMC College of Nursing.
MEDIA CONTACT: Robb Crouch, NU Foundation, 402-458-1142, 402-304-3085, rcrouch@nufoundation.org
