Samford nursing professor remembered by family, colleague

When nursing professors at Samford University got sick, they called Jane Holston.

“We’re all nurse practitioners, but she was basically our nurse practitioner,” said Jill Cunningham, the associate dean of graduate programs at the Moffett & Sanders School of Nursing. “When they (other professors) would get sick or hurt, they would go to her for advice.”

Holston, a longtime nursing professor at Samford, died Sept. 1 at the age of 56 after a battle with COVID-19. She had served as a faculty member in the school’s nurse practitioner program for 11 years. Holston was first a Samford University alumna, having earned her Master of Science in nursing in 2004; she later joined the faculty in 2010.

“She was an awesome lady,” said her husband, Rob Holston.

Jane stayed busy, constantly seeking to improve herself and those around her, and had multiple degrees at the time of her passing, her husband said.

“She multi-tasked her whole life,” he said. “She had more than half the letters in the alphabet behind her name.”

Jane was known for fostering dogs, taking in four of them herself. It was not uncommon for her to call Cunningham and tell her she would be late for a meeting because she had to stop and help a stray dog.

“I always told her she was taking in stray kids and stray dogs,” Cunningham said.

In addition to helping dogs, Holston let young men stay with her family after learning they had a difficult home life, Rob Holston said.

“She was always thinking about someone besides herself,” he said.

Rob had COVID-19 at the same time his wife did, and he was unable to see her until she was unresponsive, he said.

“You don’t think it will ever come close to you,” he said. “You’re not prepared for anything like that.”

Jane lived life to the fullest and enjoyed spending time with Rob and their son, Tyler, at Lake Logan Martin, where they owned a lake house. She loved watching the sunset just behind their lake house, Rob said. In the mornings, she would drink coffee while watching the dogs play, and when they went out on their pontoon boat, she would make sure the dogs had bright yellow life vests on, he said.

She was also funny, Cunningham said. “She would help make light of a situation,” which was helpful when someone was stressed, which is not uncommon in nursing school, Cunningham said.

She and Jane became “work sisters” and had a great relationship. She said Jane would give you the shirt off of her back, and Cunningham said she never heard anyone complain about Jane.

Early in her career, Jane worked in the neonatal intensive care unit at Brookwood Baptist Hospital in Birmingham, according to a news release from Samford. During that time, she also served as coordinator of the family support program, which cared for families who were experiencing the loss of a baby through miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death.

“Jane exhibited God’s love to her students and fellow faculty and staff. She cared deeply for those around her and was often the first to step in to help others in need,” said Melondie Carter, dean of the Moffett & Sanders School of Nursing, in a news release. “She will be deeply missed.”

“Her passion was to make it (school) not stressful, to present it to students so they could learn better,” Cunningham said.

After working as a nurse for 26 years, and the last 17 as a nurse practitioner, Jane began her career at Samford. Her primary area of expertise was being an emergency nurse practitioner, and she pioneered the school’s emergency nurse practitioner program in 2017 and helped develop its curriculum, Cunningham said.

“Her commitment to academic excellence and continuous learning afforded hundreds of Samford nurse practitioner students the opportunity to gain skills necessary to care for patients with great need,” said Mike Hardin, Samford University provost and vice president, in a news release. “Her legacy will live on through them and the patients they serve.”

Jane was able to take complicated material and make it easier for students to understand, Cunningham said.

Although she had a doctorate in nursing, she did not plan on stopping there, her husband said. She had mentioned going after another degree before her passing, he said.

“She just strived to be the best at what she was doing,” Rob said. “I would hear her late at night on the keyboard when she was getting her doctorate. … She loved what she did; she loved helping people and animals.”

Rob said he and Tyler are doing as well as can be expected and are trying to keep moving to honor Jane.

“She wouldn’t want us to quit living,” he said.

To honor Jane and her legacy, Samford’s faculty started a scholarship in her name, the Jane Holston Nurse Practitioner Scholarship, which will go to an emergency nurse practitioner student chosen each year as

long as there is money in the fund, Cunningham said.