Longtime WSU nursing professor who 'believed in the goodness of people' dies after short battle with cancer

Sue Perkins, a caregiver by trade and nature, died April 19 after a rapid battle with cancer. She was 76.

Perkins may be best known for her decadeslong career in the Lilac City teaching and training generations of nurses, which came after spending more than 25 years as a school nurse at West Valley School District. A grandmother, mother and adopted parental figure to many, Perkins was a longtime Gonzaga University basketball fan and owned the last privately owned residence on the Gonzaga campus.

"She believed in other people, and she believed in the goodness of people so much, and she loved seeing other people succeed," said her daughter, Meg Perkins. "She was very proud of what she was creating, in creating young nurses, and with her community, with these universities."

Perkins is survived by her husband of 34 years, Norm Smith; her daughter, Meg, 46; grandson Colin Weinker, 14; several "adopted" children and former tenants; and thousands of former students.

Perkins was attending the West Coast Conference in Las Vegas, cheering on the Bulldogs with her family during the first week of March, when her family members noticed she wasn't quite acting like her usual gregarious self, Meg said. A visit to the hospital led to a discovery of a glioblastoma in her frontal lobe.

A glioblastoma is an aggressive type of brain cancer; Meg said her mother received CT and MRI scans last October that were clear, meaning the tumor may have grown in mere months. It was largely inoperable and incurable, Meg said.

The day after her mother died, Meg spent hours sitting beneath the apple tree in her childhood home's backyard, where her mother used to gather apples to make pies. Meg received "hundreds of texts, hundreds of comments on Facebook and hundreds of well wishes," all from people she didn't know, but who had their lives significantly impacted by Perkins.

" 'She was my favorite teacher,' 'she inspired me to be a peds nurse,' " Meg said. "The message, I think, that was the most important, is like, 'You walk in her house, you immediately know that you're important, that you're loved and you're capable, and she's proud of you.' "

Dr. Anne Mason, dean of the WSU College of Nursing, said Perkins was a gracious colleague who always had her students front of mind. If it was a new curriculum, or a new resource for students, Perkins was always the first to raise questions about the impact on students.

Perkins' teaching career began in the early 2000s, after previously using her nursing degree at Shriners, at caregiving facilities on the West Side and in local schools. She started as an adjunct and always boasted a cadre of supporters among faculty and students, Mason said.

"She was just a lovely person, always smiling and welcoming people in," Mason said. "She was just kind of the quintessential nursing professor that believed everybody could do something really grand with their nursing career."

Perkins' passion was evident, and often infectious, to her students. Mason said she's heard her former colleague knew the name and face of every student she ever had. When Mason would review Perkins' student evaluations each semester, the reviews would be littered with "tremendous accolades" emphasized with exclamation points, like "Best teacher ever," or "She made me fall in love with pediatric nursing."

"She really shifted somebody's belief or their idea about where they were going to go in their nursing career - she was just very influential," Mason said. "And I can only imagine that she must have been just so excited to share that perspective with students in the classroom, and it was like contagious excitement for those students."

In 2018, Perkins was honored with the university's Undergraduate Faculty Excellence Award. Perkins retired as a full-time professor in 2023, but she didn't take to retirement, her daughter said. Within months, she was picking up classes at Whitworth University.

Meg said she and her family estimate Perkins taught more than 5,000 students over the course of her career. She and her husband also provided housing free of charge to around 40, by family estimates.

Perkins celebrated her last birthday just a month after her diagnosis. The staff at the nursing college, including some fellow retirees, gathered to honor Sue one last time at a birthday party in April. Mason said it was a wonderful opportunity for the group to express their appreciation to Perkins while she was still here.

"We could visit for a little bit, and we got to sing 'Happy Birthday,' and gave her some of some things that were kind of her favorite, beautiful flowers and a soft blanket," Mason said. "We were trying to wrap her in loving kindness and express our gratitude for all that she did here."

Tucked in the northwest corner of Gonzaga's campus sits Perkins' home since 1977. For decades, Perkins and her husband would allow students in need of a helping hand to stay in the basement free of charge. Some needed assistance during school, or to land on their feet poststudies. Others wound up becoming full -fledged family members.

"They were otherwise kind of lost, or would not have finished their education or just needed some mom-ing, you know what I mean?" Meg said.

"We're kind of like a home base to quite a few of our family, and the students who have stayed here - quite a few of them still call this kind of home," Perkins told the Gonzaga Bulletin in 2023. "And so we're going to stay here and have holidays and celebrate and enjoy as long as we can."

Education was always a large part of Perkins' life, Meg said. Perkins grew up the youngest of Peter and Evelyn Mahrt's three children on a farm near Reardan, where her mother was a teacher and her father served on the school board. She began playing music at a young age, eventually learning the piano, flute and guitar.

Perkins was very proud of her upbringing on the wheat farm. She loved exploring the property with her childhood dog and a lunch packed by her mother, and learning how to work the land with her father.

Meg shared a now -classic family story that highlights her mother's self-efficacy from a young age; Perkins' mother and father watched a large grain truck bounding across their property one day, fearing it was a runaway before it teetered to a stop just in front of the house. Out jumped a 12-year-old Perkins.

"That was her life on the farm," Meg said with a chuckle.

Perkins' father put all three kids through college "on a farmer's salary," and set up an endowment to pay for other family members' educations after his death, Meg said. The family set up an endowment through WSU in Perkins' name in that spirit, and to honor Perkins' steadfast desire to uplift others as they strive for their goals.

In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting donations in Perkins' honor to the WSU Foundation for the WSU College of Nursing Annual Scholarship Fund. Gifts can be made online through foundation.wsu.edu/give, or by mail, to WSU Foundation, PO Box 641925, Pullman, WA. Gifters opting for the latter option can include Perkins' name in the donation.

Perkins never strayed far from the Inland Northwest after graduating from Washington State University in 1972, but her daughter has. Meg spent the last 22 years living on the West Side, and the last eight as a nurse with the neonatal intensive care unit at the University of Washington Medical Center.

"After digging my heels in, and saying I didn't want to be a nurse," Meg said, "eventually I said 'OK' and became a nurse."

Despite the distance, Meg and her mother kept an intimate relationship. The close ties extended to Meg's son, Colin. Perkins and her grandson had a relationship uncommon for a teen and his grandmother, Meg said.

"We made a big point of having her around for him, and she was so excited when he was born," Meg said. "... He was her absolute pride and joy."

When she was younger, Meg said it could be frustrating to share her mother with so many and to such a great extent.

But it was in Perkins' nature to see the best in others, and to pour herself into them. The care now reflected back from all she touched has gone a long way in helping Meg process her mother's death.

"I feel very, very, very fortunate that I have this," Meg said. "I don't know, I just kind of feel she's with me. It's weird. I'm not a woo-woo person like that, but I feel her with me."

The family plans to hold a celebration of life for Perkins at 3 p.m. June 7 at the Barn and Blossom plant nursery and event center in Spokane.

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