Lillian Nichols, a retired Baltimore County school system nurse, died Friday of heart disease at the Broadmead Retirement Community.

The former Phoenix resident was 95.

Born Lillian Prosak in New York, she was the daughter of Joseph Prosak and his wife, Anna Klecka, who immigrated to the U.S. from Prague when she was 15.

She grew up in Manhattan and received a nursing diploma at Bellevue Hospital.

She enlisted in the Navy and was assigned to a nursing unit.

“She heard there was a need for nurses during the building of the Alcan Highway in Alaska and she went,” said her daughter, District Judge Sandy Williams of Towson. “She jumped at the opportunity.”

While in Alaska, she met her future husband, Frederick Nichols, who was then serving with the Army Corps of Engineers. He became an Air Force colonel and worked in radar.

He was assigned to the Pentagon and later worked as a civilian at the Bendix Corp. on East Joppa Road.

Mrs. Nichols earned a master's degree at the Johns Hopkins University and became a Baltimore County school nurse. She served at Woodlawn High School and at schools in Overlea and Cockeysville. She retired more than 30 years ago.

She lived at Manor Spring Farm in Phoenix in Baltimore County.

She also worked as a summer camp nurse at Camp Four Winds in Sergeantville, Maine, for many years.

Mrs. Nichols enjoyed collecting antiques and searched for them on trips to Virginia and Maine.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Lemmon Funeral Home of Dulaney Valley, 10 West Padonia Road.

In addition to her daughter, survivors include two sons, F. Kenneth Nichols Jr. of Phoenix in Baltimore County and Dr. Scott Nichols of Boston; four grandchildren; and a great grandson. Her marriage ended in divorce.

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—Jacques Kelly