Maria Theresa Stepovich Greulich
Jan 28, 1950 -
Oct 15, 2023
Maria Theresa Stepovich Greulich was born on Jan. 28, 1950, at Fairbanks' St. Joseph Hospital in the Territory of Alaska. She was the second daughter of Territorial Governor Mike Stepovich and Matilda Baricevic Stepovich, and proudly grew up in the new state of Alaska. She attended Monroe High School and was part of the graduating class of 1968. During high school, she and her dear friend, Alexis Miller, took an early interest in health care and volunteered at St. Joseph Hospital as candy stripers directly under the supervision of Nurse Stella Muckenthaler and the Sisters of Providence. In 1974, she married her soul mate, Gregory Greulich, at Immaculate Conception Church in Fairbanks.
After high school she earned a Bachelor of Science in nursing from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis. Following graduation from Marquette, she was employed at the then recently opened Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, where she was asked to assist in Labor and Delivery, which set her on her life's vocation of helping mothers through their pregnancies and delivering their babies. Maria later earned master's degrees in nursing OB-GYN and family practice, and was the first woman and nurse to found an OB-GYN clinic in the state of California. Maria, a certified nurse midwife of 35 years, led Bay Area Maternity for 11 years. Through her career, and at Bay Area Maternity, she delivered babies for her patients, and then delivered babies to their daughters, and then to their daughters' daughters. Throughout her extensive nursing career, Maria was a committed, innovative and compassionate medical professional. After retiring to Portland, Ore., Maria fell ill with advanced metastatic cancer and succumbed peacefully to the disease on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023, surrounded by members of her family.
She is survived by her husband, Gregory Greulich; five children, Dominic, Timothy, Anna, Kata and Rebecca; nine grandchildren, Lucy and Andi Greulich, Samuel, Benjamin and Matilda Asarch, Jaden, Ian and Madelyn Culnane and Wyatt Greulich; seven brothers, Michael, Peter, Christopher, Dominic, Theodore, Nicholas and James Stepovich; and five sisters, Antonia (Gore), Laura (Tramonte), Nada (Stockton), Andrea (Neville McGill) and Melissa (Cook). Maria will be interred in Fairbanks.
There will be a Rosary at 6 p.m. on Dec. 8, 2023, at Holy Family Chapel, located on the campus of the Catholic Schools of Fairbanks, 615 Monroe Street. A Requiem Mass will be held at 1 p.m. on Dec. 9, 2023, at the Immaculate Conception Church, 2 Doyon Place, with a reception to follow at Wedgewood Resort, 212 Wedgewood Drive.
It would please Maria that any memorial donations be made to Catholic Charities.
