Shirley A. Schrank is renowned as a retired nurse and visual artist with a career spanning more than 50 years. She began her career in nursing as part of a federal nurse training program instituted after World War II, earning a degree in nursing at the University of Rochester in 1954. Ms. Schrank concluded her academic efforts at the University of Rochester, obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1960 and a Master of Science in nursing education in 1961.
From 1954 to 1956, Ms. Schrank worked as a staff nurse in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester, where she was subsequently active as a team leader of the Department of Medicine from 1956 to 1960. She briefly served as an instructor in pediatric nursing at Genesee Hospital in Rochester, New York, from 1960 to 1961, before relocating to San Francisco. She later accepted the positions of a staff nurse in the Eye Surgery Department of the Children’s Hospital of San Francisco in 1961 and a surgical nurse at the Presbyterian Medical Center of San Francisco in 1962. From 1963 to 1967, Ms. Schrank flourished as an instructor of medicine, surgical and intensive care nursing at the Samuel Merritt Hospital School of Nursing in Oakland, California.
However, Ms. Schrank retired from nursing in 1967 to pursue a career in the fine arts. Her acclaimed body of work focuses on figural works in ceramic and bronze, as well as multimedia landscape and portrait pieces. She has been affiliated with the California Watercolor Association since 2006, and is a former member of such organizations as the San Francisco Women Artists and the East Bay Women Artists. Ms. Schrank’s exemplary artwork is currently represented in the Blackhawk Gallery in Danville, California. Prior to pursuing art, her friend once said that she liked to do things with her hands , especially with clay. She enjoys people and talking to them. She never thought about before until her friend mentioned it.
Moving forward, Ms. Schrank and her husband Ken enjoy getting away and they plan to go on a lot of cruises; they had Alaskan cruise in May and Hawaiian in the fall of 2019. Additionally, Ken is retired and loves to travel, and she wants to spend time with family during the holidays. Ms. Schrank would like to be remembered as someone who likes to help people, and for being a minister and a leader. She ministers in life, as people tell her their troubles, and she enjoys helping them. She has enjoyed being a good wife and mother the most.