Thomas Aretz and his wife, Genie, went through long years of rehabilitation after a 1971 explosion in which he was severely injured. The kindness shown to him by nurses during his recovery prompted the couple to make a bequest in their will to the UNF Nursing Program.

A tragic explosion in 1971 has led to the establishment of an endowment that will make more nursing scholarships available for UNF students.

A gift from the estate of the late Thomas Aretz and his wife, Genie, valued at more than $300,000 will make a substantial difference in attracting high quality students to the nursing program, according to Dr. Pam Chally, dean of the College of Health.

"This timing of this scholarship is very important since we are currently struggling with a significant nursing shortage. It is my goal to use this gift to make a difference in the community's nursing care," she said.

While details of the endowment have yet to be worked out, the gift illustrates how friends of the University, many of whom are not alumni, can make a significant difference through bequests, according to Pierre Allaire, vice president of Institutional Advancement. "We value the relationships these individuals have established with the University to support programs in which they have a strong interest," he said.

The Aretz's interest in nursing stemmed from a day in February of 1971 when there was a massive explosion in the plant Thomas worked at near Woodbine, Ga. After the dust settled, 32 of his co-workers were dead and nearly 150 were injured.

Aretz had been employed at Thiokol Chemical Corporation's sprawling Georgia division for about two years as a quality control inspector commuting to work every day from his home in north Jacksonville. The plant he was working in was manufacturing magnesium trip flares for the U.S. Army. Trip flares are a perimeter protection device which when tripped by the enemy brightly illuminate an area.

According to Associated Press reports, the blast leveled one building and heavily damaged three others. A forest fire that followed the explosion spread over 200 acres of the complex which at the time encompassed 36 buildings on a 7,000-acre site.

Aretz was thrown across the roadway from the plant and into a ditch. Rescue workers found his badly burned body in the ditch, placed him on a door that had been blown from the building and carried him to a nearby truck which transported him to the hospital. Aretz was hospitalized for about three months in Brunswick, Ga. and about a year at Baptist Medical Center in Jacksonville recovering from injuries sustained in the blast. Aretz lost his right arm and his left leg was severely injured. The painful recovery was followed by months of rehabilitation and additional surgeries. For many months he was in a wheelchair and later was fitted with a special brace to help him begin walking again. It was during that agonizing recovery that Aretz grew to value the assistance provided to him by nurses. Genie Aretz said in a 1998 interview that her husband would not have survived if it had not been for the excellent nursing care and rehabilitation treatments he received. The experience led the couple to decide to leave a substantial portion of their estate to the College of Health for need-based nursing scholarships.

Thomas Aretz died on July 19, 1999. His wife, Genie Higginbotham Aretz, died on Sept. 15, 2001.