Kristin Jo (Dunford) Stump |
| Posted 2021-04-13 by mhenderson |
| Published by Arizona Daily Sun on Apr. 11, 2021 - Flagstaff, Arizona - Kristin Jo (Dunford) Stump, born 15 October 1939, left the bounds of earth at sunrise, 31 January 2021, at home in Flagstaff, Arizona. Kris was born the first child of the late LeVon and Doris (Clark) Dunford, in Medford, Oregon, near the home of her paternal grandparents. She spent the first several years of her life in the forests of Eastern Oregon, where her schooling began in a converted Pullman car on a siding in a logging camp. When she was ten years old the family moved to Flagstaff, Arizona, where she lived a good part of the remainder of her life. That Kris "always wanted to be a nurse" was well known among family and friends. At sixteen she began as a nurses' aide at Flagstaff Community Hospital. Graduating from Flagstaff High School in 1957 she took pre-med at (then) Arizona State College, followed by a three-year diplomate program in nursing from St Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix, graduating in 1962. Kris and Juneau D "Jay" Stump (1934-2020) were married in 1964 then moved to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, while Jay completed training as a medical doctor at the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara. The stay was punctuated by semi-annual treks back to Arizona for legal reasons and for the births of their first children, Adriana and Stephen, while son Donald was born in Tucson after the family moved back to the US. Later the family moved to Cottonwood, where they set up a medical practice. After Kris and Jay divorced, she joined one of the early classes for Nurse Practitioners at the University of Arizona, completing her Family Nurse Practitioner and Emergency Medicine credential in 1978. As an FNP Kris practiced at El Rio Medical Center in Tucson, Carondelet Holy Cross hospital, in Nogales, then returning to Flagstaff, she was on the staff of Northern Arizona University Student Health services serving as a travelling medical provider and public health nurse for Indian Health Services on the Navajo Nation, based for a time at Kayenta, but covering a 250 square mile area. Her last assignment before her retirement in 2011 included setting up and running an ambulatory clinic student center for Yavapai College in the Verde Valley, with patients from teens to 85-year-olds. She recently said, "This probably was the most fun I had of all my many jobs." "Retiring" at age 72 was difficult for Kris, so she volunteered her services in a medical mission to Argentina for Doctors without Borders. While dedicating her professional life to medicine, Kris was also a skilled musician, noted for both voice and piano/organ. From the early grades through college, in school and church choirs, Kris could be found harmonizing, taking solos and accompanying the other singers. For several years, Easter Sunday would find her with the Shrine of Ages Choir filling the air with choral music on the edge of the Grand Canyon. As a long-time member of the Flagstaff Master Chorale, Kris had the opportunity in 1996 to travel on a two-week tour of Europe, where the chorale presented programs in a number of churches along the way. Having a very caring attitude and curiosity, Kris made and maintained many friends during her life, who will miss her greatly. Kris is survived by her greatest joys, her three children: Adriana (Stump) Shores, Stephen Stump, and Donald Stump, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Kris was also survived by her brother Bruce T Dunford, who also died this year, sister-in-law Ann (Alquiza) Dunford, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and sister Pat Dunford (Richard Guthrie) of Tucson, as well as six nieces and nephews. |
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