Shirley A. Smoyak, 86, of Edison, passed away peacefully at home on April 1, 2022.  She was born in Perth Amboy to Stephen and Mary (Nemeth) Soos and resided in Edison for 56 years.  She was a communicant of St. Francis Cathedral, sang in the choir and played the hand bells.

Shirley Smoyak, a psychiatric nurse and healthcare sociologist, has served as a faculty member in the Rutgers School of Nursing since 1960. She has also served in the Rutgers Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, directing their Program in Public Health; the School of Public Health, teaching health policy and directing graduate practicum students; and the Division of Continuing Studies, producing documentary films and DVDs. She was a developing faculty as the Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) began. In her more than a half century of teaching, she has developed and taught graduate and undergraduate courses in psychiatric and mental health nursing, family dynamics, health care administration, culture and health, and qualitative research methods.

Shirley Smoyak is a recognized expert in matters of psychiatry and institutional and community care of persons with mental illness. Dr. Smoyak was a court-appointed member of the Doe v. Klein Monitoring Body, whose role was to oversee Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, (GPPH) from 1977 to 2012. She chaired that group and delivered reports to the presiding judge. Largely as a result of her work at GPPH and other state hospitals, she was the 1991 recipient of the Rutgers Presidential Award for Distinguished Public Service.

She has presented workshops on psychiatry and mental health at state hospitals and universities in all of the United States and 15 foreign countries. For her work with international nursing groups, she has received many honors, such as Distinguished Lifetime Achievement, from the Royal College of Nursing, London, and the Network for Psychiatric Nursing Researchers. Kensington University, London, awarded her an Honorary Doctorate in 2009. The Maltese Psychiatric Nurses' Association designated her as a Distinguished Scholar (2014).

With Hildegard E. Peplau, recognized as the outstanding psychiatric nurse of the 20 ^th century, she traveled throughout many of the states, during summer months, conducting week or month-long workshops on the clinical practice in psychiatric nursing. This work continued from the early 1960s to the mid-80s. Settings included federal and state hospitals and university summer sessions. Some of the workshops were credit generating and some continuing studies. Dr. Smoyak's  contribution to the curriculum was family therapy. Students were assigned families and conducted the sessions in the homes of the families. With Southwest American Indian tribes, the sessions were in a community setting.

Dr. Smoyak was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, having been appointed in 1981. JPN is the only monthly journal for psychiatric nurses in the United States and the world. She oversaw the solicitation, recruitment, review and production processes, as well as writing editorials and general articles. As Editor of JPN, she was the founding member of the American Psychiatric Nurses' Association (APNA) and has been recognized by her peers with the Founder's Award, bestowed in 1990.

Professional associations have always been the interest of Dr. Smoyak. She was a Charter Member of the New Jersey Society of Certified Clinical Specialists in Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, (1972) helping to write the first certifying examination, before the national association (ANA) began certification processes. The New Jersey State Nurses Association (NJSNA) has given her many awards over the years, such as the Roll of Honor and Excellence in Practice.

She was a Charter Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, (AAN) nominated by NJSNA in 1973. As a Charter Fellow, she was instrumental in developing an organization agenda, funding, by-laws and operating procedures.

The AAN awarded her the distinction of being a Living Legend.

Among her research projects are monitoring bodies for psychiatric hospitals, stalking of clinicians, high energy drinks (HED) (with and without alcohol), and energy shots. Consumers of mental health services are the participants in one of the studies on their knowledge, attitudes and practices of HED. Students and psychiatric nurses are other participant groups. Published articles have appeared in science and nursing journals.

Besides being a professional psychiatric nurse, Shirley Smoyak was an amateur musician. She has been Cantor at St. Francis Cathedral in Metuchen, NJ.

She sang, alto, with the St. Francis Cathedral Choir, the Metuchen Diocese Festival Choir and the Rutgers-Newark Chorus. She was a bell ringer at St. Francis and the Corpus Christi Church in Chatham, NJ.  While singing with the Rutgers-Newark Chorus, she also served as the nurse on tour for England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Spain and Germany.

Shirley Smoyak is a baccalaureate graduate of the Rutgers College of Nursing. She earned a Master of Science degree, with Hildegard E. Peplau as her mentor. Her doctorate is in Sociology, Graduate Program in Rutgers New Brunswick, NJ.

Shirley was preceded in death by her husband Cornelius (Neil) Smoyak (2010) and her daughter Karen Smoyak Hoffman (1987).

Shirley is survived by her children, Deborah Parrinello and her husband Bob, Lisa Smoyak and her significant other Tom Bykowski and Mark Smoyak; her son-in-law, Tim Hoffman; and her grandchildren, James Parrinello and his significant other, Michelle Barone and Michael Parrinello and his wife Kat.

A Funeral Liturgy will be held at 10:15 AM on Saturday, April 9, 2022, at St. Francis Cathedral, Metuchen, followed by the interment of her cremated remains at Hillside Cemetery, Metuchen.  Arrangements have been entrusted to Flynn and Son / Koyen Funeral Home, 319 Amboy Ave., Metuchen.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Shirley's memory to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute:

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