M. Luisita Archer

Merla Luisita Archer was born in Manila, Philippines to David and Luz Benavides. She always excelled in school and attended the College of Nursing at the University of the Philippines on a full scholarship from 1952-1955. She married U.S. Navy airman, Jim Paul Archer in 1955, after the Korean War, and came to the United States, while pregnant with her first child, Jim Paul II, who was born the following year on the Naval base in Oakland, California. They returned to Jim’s home town of Abilene, Texas where she gave birth to daughter, Mary Lou.

While husband Jim attended Abilene Christian College, she continued her education, obtaining a diploma in nursing from Hendrick Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in 1959, and a Bachelor of Science degree from Hardin-Simmons University in 1960. That same year she was naturalized as a U.S. citizen. The family moved to Kansas City, Missouri where Jim studied and graduated from the Osteopathic College, and Lou began work at Children’s Mercy Hospital, teaching and practicing nursing, eventually becoming the Director of the Nursing program at the hospital. She earned a Master of Arts, and ultimately, a Doctoral degree in 1976 in Educational Administration from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She was hand-picked by the founder of the UMKC School of Medicine, Dr. E. Grey Dimond, to develop the curriculum for the UMKC graduate nursing program, and served as the Director of Nursing Education in its fledging years.

Lou ventured to Southern California on sabbatical at UCLA in 1981, and quickly fell in love with the weather and the food. With the help and influence of a church-family friend, Dave Davenport, she made a bold career shift to move to Los Angeles in 1982, and take a position at Pepperdine University as Assistant Director of Academic Computing. She became the University Registrar in 1985, serving until 2002, when she shifted to consultant to the vice president of planning, information and technology for two more years.

She enjoyed a robust retirement at her home in Thousand Oaks, remodeling and beautifying her home, while tending her prolific garden. She was steadfast in her faith and loyal to her close ties at the Church of Christ in Malibu, even though her health kept her from attending regularly.

She is survived by her children, Jim Archer and Mary Lou Archer, as well as her grandchildren, Tylene Archer, J.P. Archer III, Shenaya Kauble, David Sejas, Gabriel Sejas, and great-grandson Ayden Raley.