Margaret Patricia Starck

passed away at home on December 8, 2024, in Montgomery, Texas. Pat was inspirational in her courageous battle against multiple health issues. She is survived by her twin daughters Jaime Catherine Schier and Patricia Ann Griesedieck, sons-in-law Timothy Schier and Paul Griesedieck, eight grandchildren--Michael (wife Michelle and daughter Elaina), Jeffrey (wife Marie and daughters Sadie and Nellie), Casey (wife Hannah), Ellis (husband Paul and son Ezra), Peter (fiancée Hannah Miller), Nick, Shiloh, and Jordan (fiancé Jackson Phillips). Her husbands Jim Starck, MD, and Edward J. Rice, Jr. preceded her in death. She is also survived by her brother Tucker Rush (wife Mary), and Becky Lee Tillman, wife of her brother Ernest who preceded her in death, and her much-loved nieces and nephews.

Patricia was born in Americus, Georgia, on September 15, 1938 as the eldest child of Margaret Pilcher Lee and Ernest William Lee. She attended school there and went on to attend Georgia Southwestern College. From there she went on to Emory University where she earned Bachelors and Masters degrees in Rehabilitation Nursing. Later she attended the University of Alabama in Birmingham, earning a PhD in Nursing with a major in Community Mental Health Nursing and Nursing Education Administration. As an alum, she received the Visionary Leader Award at UAB.

After a few years of clinical nursing, Dr. Starck focused her career on nursing education, which culminated in 30 years as Dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. She was appointed Distinguished Teaching Professor by the University of Texas System and inducted into the University of Texas Academy of Health Science Education. She was honored to be designated as the Huffington Foundation Endowed Chair in Nursing Education Leadership and the John P. McGovern Distinguished Professor. Her research focused on Human Suffering and Pain Management. During the latter years at UT Houston, she also served as Vice President for Development and Senior Vice President for Interprofessional Collaboration, initiating team-based education and care across all six Schools. Patricia had further education at Harvard University for Senior University Administrators; the Institute of Clinical Outcomes Research in Salt Lake City, Utah; Rice University, and the Institute of Spiritual Leadership in Houston, Texas. Other honors included Houston’s YWCA Outstanding Woman in Education, the Griffin B. Bell Distinguished Lecturer at Georgia Southwestern State University, and the Sister Bernadette Arminger Award from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. She was instrumental in a significant amount of fundraising while Dean, including funds to start new degrees and programs, professorships, scholarships, as well as funds to finance a new School of Nursing building- the first LEEDs certified green building on the Texas Medical Center campus.

Awarded a federal and a state grant, Dr. Starck led efforts to establish the first on-site graduate nursing education program in the Rio Grande Valley greatly increasing the number of Hispanic nurses with graduate degrees. She served on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nursing Advisory council Executive Nurse Fellows Program and was President of the Southern Regional Education Board’s Council on Collegiate Education for Nursing. Author of many federal grants to promote nursing education, Dr. Starck also served as mentor to new deans, consultant to other schools and to hospital systems. She served as consultant to an architectural firm specializing in building health education facilities. Dr. Starck was appointed to positions by both Democrats and Republicans – being a member of the Clinton Healthcare Reform Task Force and later as a member of the Texas Health Coordinating Council. As a participant with the China Medical Board, she was instrumental in initiating the first graduate nursing program in China, a program which has now flourished.

During her doctoral studies in Birmingham, she became acquainted with Viktor Frankl, MD, PhD of Vienna Austria, Founder of Logotherapy and noted as the Father of the Third School of Psychiatry after Freud and Adler. She and Dr. Frankl maintained a colleague relationship for the remainder of his life. She served on the Board of the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy for over two decades. From the Institute, Dr. Starck received both the President’s Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award. On May 12, 2023 Dr. Starck was honored by an award at the United Nations by the Nurses with a Global Impact for her work in producing the documentary “Caring Corrupted: The Killing Nurses of the Third Reich” available for free on YouTube and seen by over six million viewers.

She was an active member of the Montgomery United Methodist Church in Montgomery, Texas, where her memorial service will be held on December 28, 2024, at 10 a.m.

People wishing to make donations in her memory may do so to MUMC or to the Patricia L. Starck Nursing Scholarship Endowment at https://giving.uth.edu/memorial or via check mailed to the following address, payable to UTHealth Houston, memo Patricia L. Starck Scholarship Endowment.

UTHealth Houston

Attn: Office of Development

PO Box 20268

Houston, TX 77025-9998