Mary Jean Etten, PhD, a longtime faculty member in the School of Aging Studies and a compassionate educator and mentor to generations of students and colleagues, died on April 16, 2026. Born on Dec. 8, 1932, Etten was 93 years old at the time of her death.
Etten, who retired in 2020, developed and taught one of the first Death and Dying courses in the early 1980s for what was then the Department of Gerontology, continuing to teach the course for nearly four decades.
She was one of the original board members of the Center for Hospice, Palliative and End-of-Life Studies at USF, which was founded in 1996. Etten was also a Dominican sister for 17 years and a tenured full professor in the College of Nursing at St. Petersburg College for 33 years, where she taught nursing, thanatology and gerontology.
Along with colleagues Sue Saxon, PhD, and Elizabeth Perkins, PhD, Etten co-authored the highly praised textbook "Physical Change and Aging," which went through three editions and was named Book of the Year by the American Journal of Nursing in 1995. It remains in circulation today in its seventh edition. She also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tampa Bay Business Journal in 2013, a fitting recognition of a life defined by purpose, leadership and service.
Her lifelong work in palliative and hospice care will remain a lasting legacy for the students she taught and the faculty she worked closely with in the School of Aging Studies.