Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Joe Ellen Skutt, Detroit: Health care administrator was 'class act' who loved to travel

By Doug Guthrie / The Detroit News

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In months to come, former Henry Ford Hospital administrator Joe Ellen Skutt's family and friends plan to take her back to the many places she traveled. By scattering her ashes there, she will become a permanent part of those places she loved.

"She loved the Caribbean. She always wanted to return to Hawaii. She liked our visits to Arizona, and New Orleans, too. She loved to remember the trip she took to Europe with friends as a nursing student," said her husband, Wayne Circuit Judge Richard Skutt. "As we travel now, we all will be taking her back."

Mrs. Skutt died Wednesday, July 13, 2005 in her Detroit home from lung cancer, which she had battled since 2003. She was 57.

Born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, she was adopted at an early age from a Catholic orphanage by a Windsor couple who raised her there.

Mrs. Skutt served on the board of Spaulding for Children, a nonprofit organization that finds new homes for children who have suffered from abuse and neglect.

She also provided volunteer medical care to the needy through Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Detroit.

After earning an undergraduate degree in nursing in Canada, she came to Detroit to earn a master's degree in hospital administration at the University of Detroit Mercy.

Mrs. Skutt worked for a number of Detroit area hospitals, before moving to Henry Ford Hospital about 15 years ago. She became a U.S. citizen in the early 1990s.

Until declining health forced her to leave work last May, she managed family clinics for Henry Ford Health System.

"Fighter that she was, she went back to work part time September through November, to help open the new Harbortown clinic," Skutt said.

Paul Szilagyi, regional vice president for Henry Ford Health System, said the new clinic reflects Mrs. Skutt's vision.

"She was a great person, a class act, and she instilled that into her work," Szilagyi said. "We wanted to make Harbortown something special. It was part of her vision to not make it just a typical medical center. Her strength and determination made that happen."

Survivors include her husband, Richard; a daughter, Sabra Skutt-Morman; a sister and a brother.

A memorial Mass will be celebrated at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 27, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 3451 Rivard, Detroit.

Memorials may be made to the Josephine Ford Cancer Center at Henry Ford Hospital or to Gilda's Club of Metro Detroit, 3517 Rochester, Royal Oak, MI 48073.

You can reach Doug Guthrie at (313) 222-2359 or dguthrie@detnews.com.