Jewel Marie (Peterson) Wegs was born July 1, 1940, to Carl and Hattie Peterson on a farm outside Red Oak, Iowa. She died peacefully and with grace and dignity in the presence of her husband, Tom, on May 29, 2025. She lived a full and joyful life full of family, friends, and adventures.

She attended school in Red Oak, Iowa, and after high school went to nurses training at Immanuel School of Nursing in Omaha, sponsored by Immanuel Hospital and staffed by Lutheran nuns, receiving a Diploma in Nursing in 1961. She moved to Denver and worked as a nurse at Children's Hospital and Lutheran Hospital.

She heard about the Peace Corps instituted by President John F. Kennedy and applied for and was accepted as a Peace Corps Volunteer, serving in the Dominican Republic, 1963-1965, as a Peace Corps Volunteer, teaching basic nursing skills in several rural hospitals. She considered this to be the keystone career crossroads of her life, as it opened her vista of the world.

Upon returning to Colorado, she attended the University of Colorado, earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1967. She then worked as a visiting nurse in the Denver area. In this part of her life, she met her future husband, Tom Wegs, at a picnic she and another volunteer had organized for former PCVs in the summer of 1967. They were eventually engaged and married in Denver on the evening of March 26, 1968. The couple had three children: Christina, born in July 1969; Sara, born in August 1970; and Tommy, born in November 1971.

She was out of the nursing scene for a number of years, being a stay-at-home mom. In this period, she and her husband volunteered at Montview Community Preschool as well as at Park Hill Elementary School, as well as at many other neighborhood enterprises. She returned to nursing part-time and earned a Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Colorado in 1981. She was a founding mother of Mother's Day Out and played on a women's soccer team and coached a girls' team. She enjoyed all kinds of outdoor sports: hiking, camping, and biking, including completing the Ride the Rockies bike tour eight times.

She worked at University Hospital at 9th and Colorado Blvd from 1973 to 1982 as a staff nurse and from 1982 to 1991 as an Outpatient Chemotherapy Staff nurse. In 1991, she moved to the Denver Veterans Medical Center to serve as the Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist, until she retired in early 2006.

She received various nursing specialist certifications, including Advanced Oncology Certification and Advanced Nurse Practitioner. While at Veterans, she headed the oncology outpatient clinic and taught Oncology Certification classes to the floor nurses. At various times, she chaired the Cancer Center Nursing Symposium, served as President and trainer of the Oncology Nurses' Society, and was a volunteer faculty member at the Colorado Health Sciences Center School of Nursing. She also planned and participated in numerous Fall Oncology Conferences.

She was especially fond of instituting and chairing an annual Survivor's Day for former surviving cancer patients. This was a special and vital reminder to both patients and healthcare providers of the importance of their medical efforts.

She was recognized with many awards, including, but not limited to, Nursing Excellence, Award of Nursing Merit, American Cancer Society Lane W. Adams Nurses Award, and as a finalist for the Nightingale Award, among others.

She received American Cancer Society grants and was a published author with her colleague doctors in the Journal of Allergy and Immunology. She was a member of MDONS research panels and participated in various oncology and chemotherapy annual updates.

She and her husband traveled throughout the world, especially through Central and South America, the Caribbean, Africa, Nepal, China, and Turkey, and participated in the Tsunami Medical Mission to India in January 2005. She and her husband were conversant in Spanish, facilitating their travels.

She is survived by a family who treasured her, including her husband of 57 years, her children and grandchildren, Leah and Alice, her sisters Harriett and Lois, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Please join us for a celebration of her life, July 25th at 1:00 PM at the Miller Center at Montview Church. The event will also be livestreamed at the following link: https://youtube.com/live/ijuryJtpLwM?feature=share

Remembrances in Jewel's name may be made to the entity of your choice supporting early childhood development.
Obituary published on Legacy.com by Fairmount Funeral Home, Cemetery & Crematory on Jul. 5, 2025.