Nurses Educational Funds, Inc.

Jo Kirsch, EdD, RN, 1939 - 2024

Jo Kirsch, EdD, RN, passed from our lives November 5, 2024. Beloved wife of the late Dr. Bernard Kirsch (deceased in 2010). Devoted mother of, and survived by, Sally and her husband Stephen Fisk, Samuel and his wife Emily. Jo is also survived by five cherished grandchildren Noah, Evan, Ben, Lukas and Shaylah. Jo was born on July 29, 1939 in Brooklyn, NY. She was the first in her family to attend college, first becoming an RN and later obtaining a PhD from Columbia University. She lived in Manhattan until 2011 when she moved to Westport, CT to be closer to Sally and her family.

Jo and her husband Bernard spent their summers and year-round weekends on Pipes Cove in Greenport, NY where they started off by pulling poison ivy and camping out in the lot they had purchased only to later build a house where many memories were made with family and friends. Wherever she lived Jo accumulated the most amazing friends and acquaintances. She always seemed to have the most compassionate, intellectual, and good-humored people surrounding her.

Jo was a nurse and had a long career as a professor of nursing administration, ombudsman, and chair of the faculty senate at Hunter College, City University of New York. Upon retiring from Hunter, Jo had a second career as a docent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art which she loved dearly and retired as emeritus after 25 years.

Jo was a longstanding Nurses Educational Board of Directors member and served with distinction as the President of Nurses Educational Funds, a nonprofit organization, established in 1912 by nurses for nurses, NEF annually awards master's and doctoral degree nurses scholarships for leadership. A lover of opera and jazz, cooking and spending time with her friends and family, Jo was admired by all for her intelligence, grace, fortitude, warmth, and hospitality.

She will be greatly missed and always remembered.