Nadine Small St. Louis, 73, passed away on Sept. 29, 2010 in Chippewa Falls, following a courageous eight year battle with neuroendocrine cancer.

She was preceded in death by her parents.

After her mother died in 1980 Nadine initiated the Clara B. Small scholarship at UW-Eau Claire. Nadine Margaret Small was born Nov 17, 1936 in Salem, Oregon, the only child of John Quincy and Clara Boie Small. She was raised on the eighty acre family farm five miles south of Silverton, Oregon in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. She attended St Paul's Catholic Elementary School in Silverton and graduated from Silverton High School in 1953. This was followed by two years at Willamette University in Salem where she majored in Spanish, a year's work for the State of Oregon, then transferred to the University of Oregon in Eugene where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority, and where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in English. She then worked for a year as a court clerk in Eugene. On the advice of Judge Forte she took in 1959 a graduate assistantship in the English Department of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, studying English and teaching English as a Foreign Language to foreign students. At this time she started to be called Dina by roommate Marian Pariseau. She met U of M chemistry graduate student Robert St. Louis on a blind date in the fall of 1959; they married in St. Paul in July, 1960. She then worked at temporary secretarial jobs in Minneapolis until husband finished his graduate work. Their only child, Leigh Rhiannon Saint-Louis (née Paula Kay St. Louis) was born in 1961, and Nadine became a fulltime mother. They lived in Baltimore during 1962; in 1963 they moved to Anaheim, California where Robert worked as a research chemist for US Borax Research Corp and Dina raised Paula. They then moved to Westwood, California where Dina took graduate work in the Department of English at UCLA, obtaining her MA in English there in June,1966, and began doctoral work. They moved to Eau Claire, Wisconsin in 1968 (when Robert was hired by the Chemistry Department) and Dina worked on her dissertation, a very detailed study of various editions of the play "The Fancies Chaste and Noble" by seventeenth-century English playwright John Ford.

Nadine was hired as an instructor in the English Department at UW-Eau Claire in the fall of 1969, and spent the rest of her professional life there. Her UCLA Ph.D. in English was awarded in March 1972, and shortly afterwards she was tenured at UW-Eau Claire. Her long and active career there ended with retirement in January, 2000. While at UWEC she taught English Composition, and, at various times, Introduction to Literature, Drama, Science Fiction, Book Publishing, Shakespeare, Bibliography, Seventeenth Century, and other courses. She also held administrative positions at UWEC. She was the first Assistant to the Chancellor for Affirmative Action. She was the first woman chair of the UWEC Faculty Senate, and served on many University and Departmental committees. During academic year 1985-86 she taught English at the Oberstufenkolleg of the University of Bielefeld, West Germany on a faculty exchange. During this time in Germany, inspired by a colleague there, she began writing her poetry. After returning home she served as chair of the Department of English at UWEC for some five years. At UWEC she was a beloved friend, mentor, confidante, colleague, and teacher of students and fellow faculty.

Some of the organizations Dina has enjoyed belonging to include the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets(award winner), the Eau Claire Noon Rotary Club, Indianhead Track Club (Hall of Fame inductee), the Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy, and the American Civil Liberties Union.

After retiring in 2000 Dina continued her writing and enjoyed meeting and working with the Chippewa Valley writing community, as well as seeing her daughter and grandchildren develop. She helped set up the annual fall Book Festival in Eau Claire. She has been active in arranging and participating in many area poetry readings, and in encouraging other writers. She has published the books "Weird Sisters" and "Zebra" and filled many notebooks with a treasury of other poems, some of which are known from her local readings. In spring 2010 she was honored by being named the first Poet Laureate of Eau Claire, by action of the City Council. She contracted cancer in 2002, but used every available option to continue as normally as possible. Her two final goals were completed recently: the birth of her first great-grandchild Clara (named after Dina's mother) and living long enough to see her 50th wedding anniversary in July, 2010, both shortly before her final hospitalizations.

Dina especially loved the constant contacts with her family, she loved languages, English and foreign, and she loved the Cascade Mountains with their majestic Douglas firs. She was very proud of her daughter's achievements. Dina's life story may be read through her poetry.

Survivors include husband, Robert (Bob) of Eau Claire; daughter, Dr. Leigh Saint-Louis (Jason Pitzl-Waters) of Eugene; granddaughters, Faith Swords (Sascha Meinrath) of Greenbelt, Maryland and Zöe Swords of Eugene; grandson, Shannon Swords of Urbana, Illinois; and great-granddaughter, Clara Alain Swords Meinrath, also of Greenbelt; and cousins, Betty Hanauska of Salem and Madelon Petroff of Lake Oswego, Oregon.

Dina's family would like to thank Dr. E. T. Creagan and the staff of the Mayo Clinic for their many years of patient support, and Dr. Lindsay and staff at the Wissota Health and Regional Vent Center in Chippewa Falls for making her comfortable during her final struggle.

Friends are invited to help remember Dina by visiting with the family and each other at Dina's "wake" at the St. Louis residence on Fear Street in Eau Claire, on Sunday, Oct 3 any time from 3 to 10 p.m.

Details available from Fuller Speckien Hulke Funeral Home, who are also overseeing the cremation.

In lieu of flowers please direct any memorial contributions for Dina (Nadine) to the UW-Eau Claire Foundation's Clara B. Small scholarship.

Dina was the definition of a nice person.