Janet Zenk of West Islip, a nurse practitioner with a lifetime love of learning, dies at 96

Janet Zenk, a nurse practitioner who served on the faculty of Stony Brook University's School of Nursing, died on Wednesday at her home in West Islip.

Zenk, 96, who died peacefully of complications related to a stroke she suffered earlier this year, was surrounded by friends and loved ones, said her daughter Jennifer McManus of Madison, Connecticut.

“She was a pioneer in nursing,” McManus said. “She gave lectures and she loved to speak about the history of nursing. She was ahead of her time.”

Zenk was born in 1926 to Walter and Helen Scherr and grew up in Ozone Park, Queens. An excellent student, she served as her class valedictorian at Our Lady of Wisdom Academy, excelling in public speaking, McManus said.

Zenk enrolled in the Mary Immaculate Hospital School of Nursing and joined the U.S. Nurse Corps to serve her country during World War II, but the war ended before she graduated in 1946.

She married Martin Zenk, a chemical engineer, in 1948 and the couple had the first of their five children — a son they named Martin — a year later. They moved with their growing family to West Islip in 1954, McManus said.

Janet Zenk worked part time as a nurse at what is now Good Samaritan University Hospital for many years to keep her skills up to date while she raised her family, according to her daughter. She returned to school in her late 40s when her children were older, eventually earning a master’s degree from Stony Brook’s nurse practitioner program, her daughter said. She specialized in adult health.

“Janet’s gravitation to health care as a career was emblematic of her profound empathy and compassion for her fellow humans,” her family wrote in a statement. “As a woman of deep faith and a positive outlook, she had many friends and interests and lived a very full life, and she will be sorely missed by those whose lives she touched.”

Zenk later joined the Stony Brook nursing faculty and worked at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Northport, where she started a clinic to help patients manage high blood pressure, according to her daughter.

“She loved learning,” McManus said. “She was always encouraging people to go back to school. She was a lifetime learner.”

Zenk was active at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Babylon, where she served as a lector. She was also an active gardener.

“She loved to putz around the garden,” McManus said. “Vegetables and flowers.”

Zenk and her husband joined the Island Rock Hounds, a club dedicated to geology, mineralogy and other earth sciences. The couple frequently joined other club members on field trips, McManus said.

Zenk’s children thought she might lose interest in the club after Martin died in 1995, McManus said, but she was active in the Rock Hounds until the end of her life, serving at one point as the club’s treasurer.

In addition to her daughter Jennifer McManus and son Martin Zenk, Janet Zenk is survived by three other children, Diana Finnerty, Carolyn Zenk and Gregory Zenk; her sister, Helen Fraser; and five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Visitation will be held Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m. at Chapey & Sons Funeral Home in West Islip. A funeral Mass will be celebrated Thursday at 10:30 a.m. at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Babylon. Zenk will be buried alongside her husband at Calverton National Cemetery following the Mass.

In lieu of flowers, Zenk’s family asked for donations to be directed to the Stony Brook School of Nursing Fund for Excellence.