SOURCE: https://writers-camp.org/2026/03/22/onward-remembering-jacqueline-fawcett/
I learned this morning that Dr. Jacqueline Fawcett died peacefully at her home in Waldoboro, Maine. She was with her husband and sister, resting quietly. Jacqui just had her 87th birthday on March 18th.
Many of us knew Jacqui as a towering figure in nursing theory. She was clear, disciplined, and unwavering in her commitment to nursing and nursology as a scholarly discipline. Her work shaped how generations of nurses think about theory, knowledge, and the intellectual foundations of our field.
I first heard Jacqui speak more than four decades ago, at a Sigma Theta Tau Regional Assembly at Adelphi University, sometime around 1981 or 1982. That was our first meeting. Over the years, we became what I have come to call “frolleagues”—friendly colleagues. (That relationship, notably, did not extend to sharing a double bed at a Sigma meeting—a story for another time.)
At Writer’s Camp, I have been fortunate to host some of Jacqui’s work. In January, we published her article, “Writing a Column for a Nursology Journal: A Personal Experience,” which includes her annotations of the “Essays on Nursing Science” columns she wrote in Nursing Science Quarterly from 2012 to 2025. It is a remarkable record of sustained scholarly reflection.
A moment from February 13, 2026: Jacqueline Fawcett in conversation with Afaf Meleis and Peggy Chinn, continuing the work of nursing theory—always onward. Peggy is holding a picture of Margaret Newman.On April 2nd, we will release a Trail Pack on Nursing Theory Think Tanks, which includes a video recorded on February 13 with Jacqui, Afaf Meleis, and Peggy Chinn. In it, Jacqui is doing what she always did—thinking, engaging, and speaking about nursing theory. I now recognize this as one of her final recorded conversations, and I am honored to be able to share it.
Jacqui often ended her communications with a single word: “Onward!” It was not casual. It was a stance—a commitment to continuing the work of the scholarship of nursology with clarity and purpose.
Today, we pause to remember her. And then, as she would have us do, we continue.
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