Sally Ann Nousek

SALLY ANN NOUSEK (nee McKernan), a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, Northern Ohio ALS Association Chapter leader, and volunteer died Monday, April 10, 2023.  She was 91 years old.

She was married for 50 years to James E. Nousek, Jr., M.D. (deceased), and is the mother of five children: Nancy Kant (husband Glenn), Kathy Hutchison (husband Ken), James M. Nousek, Judy McLaughlin (husband Mike), and Daniel Nousek.  She is the grandmother of Jim Goebl (wife Monica), Allen Goebl, Kyle (wife Quinn), Christopher (wife Kaiyla), and Callia Hutchison, Jessie McLaughlin, and Erin McLaughlin.  She is the great-grandmother of Grayson Goebl; sister of Mary Klenke (husband Ken) and Edward McKernan (deceased) (wife Doris). She was also a devoted aunt and great aunt.

In addition to devotion to family, Sally was committed to numerous community and volunteer activities.  She was one of the founders of the Northern Ohio Chapter of the ALS Association and an initial leader of its services to patients in Northeast Ohio. She became deeply involved in the ALS community following the death of her mother from this degenerative neuromuscular disease.

She helped build a support group for ALS patients.  Held at the Cleveland Clinic, she arranged monthly support group meetings where speakers from different disciplines provided patient information and patients could provide mutual support.  She also assisted patients while they were treated in the innovative multi-specialty practice led by the Cleveland Clinic’s Dr. Hiroshi Mitsumoto, M.D.

Sally served on the first board of what became the Northern Ohio Chapter of the ALS Association.  She was awarded a Meritorious Service Award from the national ALS Association in 2006.  She helped build a loan bank of assistive medical support devices for patients when these were not widely available.

After obtaining her undergraduate degree, Sally became a Pathology laboratory technician at Cleveland Clinic.  She worked in the laboratory that supported Dr. Irwin Page, M.D., one of the early leaders of cardiovascular research.  She met her husband, Jim, an Ophthalmologist at the Clinic, and began her family soon after they married in 1955.

Sally was born in Topeka, Kansas in 1932 and attended elementary and high school in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. She attended Kansas University where she studied zoology at a time when relatively few women majored in the sciences.  She was a passionate fan of K.U. basketball.

As an amateur naturalist, she shared her love of science and nature by leading a camping group for elementary school girls at St. Gregory the Great School.  She was also an avid gardener.

She was active in the Women’s Guild at St. Gregory the Great parish.  For several years, she was a volunteer for the South Euclid-Lyndhurst Meals-on-Wheels program.

In lieu of flowers, contributions suggested to the ALS Association Northern Ohio Chapter, 6133 Rockside Rd., # 301, Independence, OH 44143 https://als.org/northern-ohio.

Mass of Christian Burial Tuesday, April 18, 2023, at St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish at 11 AM. Interment All Souls Cemetery. Family will receive friends to pay tribute and celebrate the life of Sally at THE DeJOHN-FLYNN-MYLOTT FUNERAL HOME OF SOUTH EUCLID, 4600 MAYFIELD RD. (just East of Green Rd.) MONDAY 4-7 PM.