Legendary UNMC supporter, Virginia Grissom, dies at age 99

Virginia Grissom, the matriarch of one of the most important families in the history of UNMC, died Feb. 26 at an assisted living facility in Omaha. She was 99 — less than five months short of her 100th birthday.

Grissom’s husband, Robert Grissom, M.D., was the first full-time chair of the UNMC Department of Internal Medicine from 1956-1970 and is credited with being one of the key leaders who raised the bar and set the course for making UNMC the world-class medical center it is today. Dr. Grissom died in 2009 at the age of 92.

Virginia played a key role in supporting her husband through her work with the Faculty Wives Club, in arranging social activities for the department and serving as a tireless volunteer for the medical center spending countless hours assisting families in the Surgery Waiting Room.

Together, the Grissoms — who first came to UNMC in 1953 — were philanthropic giants, contributing generously to their favorite programs including the McGoogan Library of Medicine, the UNMC Department of Internal Medicine, the Michael F. Sorrell Center for Health Science Education, the Truhlsen Eye Institute, the Weigel Williamson Center for Visual Rehabilitation, the College of Public Health, and the Interprofessional Academy of Educators.

“Virginia Grissom was the grande dame of UNMC. There will never be another to equal her. She was a legend in her own right,” said Michael Sorrell, M.D., who holds the title of the Robert L. Grissom, M.D., Professor of Medicine.

“She was a wonderful role model, who was years ahead of her time in everything,” said Nancy Grissom, the oldest of the Grissoms’ four children who now lives in Newton, Mass., and works in real estate.

A native of Springfield, Mass., Virginia Beal Grissom was a huge proponent of education. At a time when most women stayed home and raised their families, she earned a mathematics degree from Mount Holyoke College, then went on to get a master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin and was just a dissertation short of having her Ph.D. As an undergraduate, she was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society.

The Grissoms met in Wisconsin when Robert was stationed there as a physician in the military during World War II. They married in 1944 and had three daughters and a son during their 64-year union.

Both Grissoms were fitness buffs. Robert was a runner, and Virginia loved to swim, play golf and take long walks — even after having both her hips replaced when she was in her 80s and 90s. Virginia drove until she was 97, Nancy Grissom said, and had no major health issues at the time of her death other than short-term memory loss.

In addition to UNMC, Virginia’s passions included the Girl Scouts, the Omaha Symphony, Joslyn Museum, Fontenelle Forest and Dundee Presbyterian Church.

She held a volunteer position as board president of the Girl Scouts in Omaha. During her tenure, Grissom used to take scouts to Camp Wa-Shawtee in southwest Iowa. A lake at the camp was named Lake Virginia in her honor. As a youth in the Girl Scouts, Virginia got to row across a lake in the same canoe with Eleanor Roosevelt, the first lady of the United States.

She also started playing the drums in the drum and bugle corps with the Girl Scouts in Springfield, Mass., and the unit won several contests. This was a hobby she continued as an adult, as she played kettle drums at church music events and even participated in a talent show a few years ago playing a drum set.

As the story goes, Virginia once encountered a rattlesnake at a Girl Scout camp, and instead of being scared away, she grabbed an axe and chopped off the snake’s head.

“This was amazing to me,” said Meg Johnson, assistant vice president, UNMC development, University of Nebraska Foundation.” Here’s this small-statured woman taking on a snake — it speaks to who she was at her core — strong, smart and determined.”

“She was a no-nonsense kind of person, fiercely independent,” Nancy Grissom said. “If her children asked her to do something, she would say, ‘You know how to do it — do it yourself.'”

“She was not afraid to take on any task,” said Carol Grissom, a conservator at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. “I remember her building a patio and surrounding wall largely from old bricks being extracted from one of the university’s brick roads.

“She also could be a lot of fun. I don’t remember other mothers going sledding with their kids.”

The Grissoms’ youngest child, Tim, a radiologist at Parkview Regional Medical Center in Fort Wayne, Ind., summarized his mother’s life by saying, “She lived a full life of 99 years — a beautiful, intelligent woman, living and learning from the ‘depression’ years, marrying my father, devoting her life to raising her children and serving the Omaha community.”

She is survived by her four children — Nancy, Carol, Leslie, (a pediatric radiologist at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del.); and Tim; five grandchildren; and four great grandchildren.

The family plans to hold a memorial service on June 29 at Dundee Presbyterian Church in Omaha. The family requests that memorials be made to the Girl Scouts, the Omaha Symphony and the University of Nebraska Foundation.