Mother of nine 'devoted life to caring' with nursing career

Within one year of Alexian Brothers Medical Center opening in 1966 in Elk Grove Village, a Hoffman Estates mother started working in its emergency room as a nurse.

Else Kathryn Stuckmann donned her nurse's cap, earned at Augustana Hospital's School of Nursing in 1952, after the birth of her ninth child, working nights, while her husband worked during the day.

As the hospital grew, so did her responsibilities.

By 1977, Mrs. Stuckmann had risen through the ranks to become the hospital's director of nursing, with up to 12 supervisors reporting to her, and overseeing as many as 300 nurses and nurses' aides throughout the hospital.

"My mother always wanted to be a caregiver, to take care of people," says her youngest daughter, Lisa Kociecki of McHenry. "She devoted her life to caring for other people."

Mrs. Stuckmann passed away Thursday. The 47-year resident of Hoffman Estates was 76.

"Even in her last few days spent at Alexian Brothers, nurses stopped by the room and told us they had been hired by my mother," her daughter adds.

They remembered how Mrs. Stuckmann varied her own shifts so as to walk in the shoes of her nurses. They also remembered her strength as a negotiator, often standing up to doctors in defense of her nurses.

"They used to call her 'the bulldog,' " her daughter quips, "because she was tough and strong, but was always fair and held people to high standards."

Mrs. Stuckmann left Alexian Brothers in 1983 to complete her master's degree in science, enabling her to continue her transition from bedside nursing to administration. She spent the remainder of her career working for Ancilla Systems and its hospitals devoted to serving the poor and underserved.

Her most recent role was as director of quality assurance at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Chicago, overseeing the hospital's internal workings and working with the Joint Commission, which accredits hospitals.

Though Mrs. Stuckmann held major titles in both health-care systems, she was just as devoted to her children, family members say.

"When we were kids, it always felt like she was at home," Kociecki says. "She got us all off to school in the morning, and she was home making us dinner, every single night."

Besides her daughter, Mrs. Stuckmann is survived by her husband, Herman, whom she met as a teenager growing up in the same neighborhood in Chicago, as well as her nine children, including: John of Rockford, Nancy (Donald) Nesci of Hawthorn Woods, James (Kathleen) of Lakewood, Thomas (Jayne) of Wauconda, Richard (Joan) of Batavia, David (Therese) of Cary, Paul of Atlanta, Mary (Kevin) Wieczorek of Cary.

Mrs. Stuckmann also is survived by 16 grandchildren.

Services have been held.