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Frances Clark Rios loved nursing. After graduating from Tucson High School, she enrolled in the old St. Mary's Hospital School of Nursing and eventually joined the faculty at the University of Arizona College of Nursing in the mid-'70s.

Rios knew she was a pioneer. She probably was one of the first Latinas on the nursing faculty, if not the first.

She inspired Latino nursing students to exceed their expectations. Rios was strict and demanding of all her students in her nursing pediatrics classes.

But illness and frustration with the college forced her to leave. She suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis. She confronted what she believed was ill treatment by the Nursing College.

She died Sunday at the age of 71. History is not likely to remember her, but Rios' family, friends and former colleagues will.

"She was smart and she excelled in school," said Delia Lopez Vidal, a former St. Mary's nurse. "She wanted to be the best."

Vidal and Rios were classmates, first in high school and then at St. Mary's on the West Side. At St. Mary's, students underwent a rigorous schedule and old-fashioned hands-on training.

Rios graduated in 1956 from nursing school, second in her class, and enrolled in the College of Nursing. She graduated from the UA in 1960.

"She wanted to take care of people," said Rios' daughter, Desiree A. Rios.

Her mother was quietly passionate about her nursing work. And she was demanding of herself and later of her students, said Desiree. "She was Semper Fi all the way," she said.

Rios had to be. She had to prove herself.

She was born at the old Stork's Nest, a maternity house in the Downtown Presidio. She grew up in the barrio south of Downtown and divided her time between Tucson and Sasabe.

Unlike St. Mary's nursing school, where some of her classmates were from Latino families, Rios didn't have the emotional comfort of studying with other Latino and Latina students in the College of Nursing. There was no faculty member who shared her cultural experience and who could mentor her. She was alone.

Rios also contended with increasingly debilitating health issues. But being tough and tenacious, she completed her master's degree in 1974 and joined the faculty as an assistant professor.

"She was sensitive about being Mexican-American," said Margarita A. Kay, professor emerita at the UA's College of Nursing. While Rios didn't bring attention to her ethnicity, she felt she was poorly treated, said Kay.

"She dealt with it quietly," said Kay.

In 1981, Rios left the College of Nursing, limited by her arthritis and professional obstacles.

If Rios were a UA nursing student today, she would see more diversity among students, said Maria Carmen Eribes, clinical associate professor and director of Cultural Diversity at the College of Nursing. But the number of ethnic-minority faculty members remains low, said Eribes, the only Latina on the faculty.

She said the dean is committed to increasing the number of ethnic-minority faculty and students.

If the college does, it may remember Rios.

"She died in the emergency room at St. Mary's Hospital, where the nurses reassured her that she was one of them — a comrade nurse who had done her duty and served well," said Rios' daughter.