FLORENCE, S.C. – Dr. Ellen O. Fuller, an educator and research physiologist whose career spanned more than a half-century, died Monday, November 16, at McLeod Hospice House. She was 92. Her health had declined in recent weeks and her four children attended her in the final days. Her husband, of 60 years, E.E. (Tom) Fuller passed away in 2006.

A petite, cheerful woman with a cultured New England accent, Dr. Fuller lived most of the year at her home in Searsport, Me., overlooking Penobscot Bay. She spent winter months at the Methodist Manor in Florence. South Carolina is home to her son, two of her three grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren

Ellen O'Neil was born Oct. 4, 1923, in Providence, R.I., and graduated from Classical High School in Providence. While waiting a year to enlist in the Woman's Army Corps to train in nursing, she returned to Searsport and took another senior year at Searsport High School -- just for the love of learning.

Her Army career began in April of 1945 at Camp Edwards in Massachusetts, where she met a wounded Captain Tom Fuller. They were married in December of 1946. After leaving the Army, the couple returned to his home on Cape Cod.

Employed by Coca-Cola, Tom took the family from New England to Chicago and then to Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta. While raising her two boys and two girls, Dr. Fuller returned to school in 1960. After receiving a B.S. in nursing from the Medical College of Georgia, she continued her education at Emory University, where she earned an M.Sc. and then her Ph.D. in physiology in 1968.

Her principal research involved cardiac performance and metabolism, and arterial mechanics and biochemistry. Her teaching career in Atlanta included appointments as an associate professor in applied health sciences at Georgia State University, assistant professor of physiology at Emory University, visiting fellow at Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania, and associate professor in physiology at Emory. In 1980, she and her husband moved to Pennsylvania, when she was appointed as director of the Center for Nursing Research and associate professor of physiology, a joint appointment to the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine.

In her professional career, she was actively recruited to numerous advisory committees related to basic science research initiatives, including work with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Pew Foundation's Scholars Program in Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Fuller's organization memberships included the American Physiological Society, New York Academy of Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science and American Heart Association's Basic Science Council. In addition, she authored and coauthored dozens research publications and abstracts on cardiac medicine and physiology.

As a fulltime resident in Searsport, ME, she served multiple terms on the Board of Directors of the Mosman Memorial Park Association, the Penobscot Marine Museum, and the Searsport Historical Society. Ellen indulged her non-science side by working with friend Valerie Murphy, to create "A Fractured History of Searsport" -- a play produced by the historical society in 2004.

She is survived by daughter Cynthia Fuller and husband Bill Cotterell of Tallahassee, Fl., son Mark D. Fuller of Florence, SC, daughter Marion Fuller Aller and husband Charles Aller of Crawfordville, Fl., son Andrew Y. Fuller of Smyrna, Ga., daughter-in-law Mary L. Fuller of Florence, SC. Her grandchildren Rachel Fuller McFarland and the Reverend Stuart Fuller reside in SC. Grandson Petty Officer 1st Class Christopher Cotterell serves aboard the USS Maine, Submarine Base Bangor in Silverdale, WA. She has seven great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Searsport Historical Society in Searsport, Me., or the American Heart Association.

A memorial service is scheduled at 11:00 AM on Friday, November 20, 2015 at the Methodist Manor in Florence.