Please note: this letter was originally sent to NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing alumni on January 5, 2021.

Dear all,

I’m writing with sad news to share. Rory Meyers, our College’s namesake, passed away last week at age 79.

Rory was a tremendous nurse leader and humanitarian who deeply understood the transformational role nurses offer to patients across the lifespan. In particular, she viewed nursing as a career that focused on caring for those most in need, a call she answered her entire life.

As the first in her family to go to college, she also was passionate about enabling first-generation, financially-needy undergraduate students to succeed and thrive by funding their education, without worrying about the burden of tuition and living expenses. Her $30 million naming gift in 2015 was the largest ever to a school of nursing and was just recently complemented by a new gift of $7 million for interprofessional undergraduate education scholarships.

We mourn the loss of this remarkable woman, whose legacy will extend many generations into the future, through not just her family, friends, and former patients, but all of us here at NYU Meyers who share Rory’s profound commitment to patients, families, and the nursing profession.

Please keep Rory, her husband Howard, and her children Kevin and Craig in your thoughts. We will be in touch later this month with details on how we plan to commemorate Rory’s lifetime of service and generosity.

Best,
Dean Eileen Sullivan-Marx