A larger-than-life legacy: Jensen honors late husband with memorial scholarship

Lisa Jensen ’81 will never forget the words her husband, Adrian Gustai, spoke the morning he’d suffer a fatal heart attack:

It was a mantra Gustai, ever the lifelong optimist, told her countless times. It still guides Jensen's internal compass, as she's determined to see the world through her late husband’s eyes. It’s a mindset she hopes future nursing students at South Dakota State might learn from, bolstered by the Gustai Gustai Memorial Scholarship in Nursing. 

Growing up in Volga, Jensen knew early on she wanted to pursue an education in healthcare. She and her brother saved for college by raising cattle and pigs, with some assistance from their veterinarian father. She credits SDSU and its nursing program as pivotal steppingstones in her journey, a place that taught her core fundamentals and skills. 

“I went to three schools and got degrees at all three, and I could have supported any of those schools,” Jensen said, “but I chose to support SDSU because it gave me my base and foundation for my career.”

After college, Jensen worked as a psychiatric staff nurse at Avera Health in Sioux Falls before pursuing her master’s in psychiatric nursing at Texas Women’s University. Four years later, she settled in Salt Lake City and a role at the Veterans Affairs hospital there for 25 years. 

Jensen met Gustai in 1999, drawn to his infectious personality, zest for life and unfailing positivity. Marrying in 2004, the two shared similar values and a love of the outdoors, finding adventure in every recreational sport imaginable. Gustai had fled Romania and its communist dictator with his family in 1984 as political refugees. After an oppressive and restricted upbringing, Gustai found the United States a place of solace and possibility; he attained U.S. citizenship in 1991, and his gratitude to be an American was boundless. 

“He was a deep believer that you should do what you want to do, don’t sweat the small things and enjoy life as much as you can,” Jensen explained. 

While Jensen continued her work at the VA and earned her clinical doctorate at the University of Utah, Gustai worked for the Department of Defense as an electrical engineer at Hill Air Force Base. The couple shared nearly 25 years together, living a life of whirlwind travel and seizing every day until tragedy struck in March 2023. They were in Lake Tahoe for a wedding, and the resort was slammed with a snowstorm, keeping them indoors and dampening Jensen’s spirits. Gustai reminded her they’d simply have to make the best of things. That afternoon, he collapsed from cardiac arrest that would prove fatal. 

Jensen was in shock. “It took me awhile to realize he was really gone and wouldn’t be walking back through the door,” she recalled. 

Prior to Gustai’s death, the couple had made plans to meet with leadership from SDSU and the Alumni & Foundation to discuss their philanthropic goals. It was one week after Gustai’s passing; Jensen insisted the meeting would proceed. 

Though Gustai spent his career in engineering, he’d told Jensen that teachers and nurses were the best kind of people. He respected those who made a profession of caring for people.

Amid her devastating loss, Jensen continues to prioritize the well-being of others. Through her scholarship, she aims to uplift future nurses, both financially and professionally. Over her career, Jensen witnessed the challenges healthcare workers face every day, striving to keep pace in a field that demands nimble skill-building and boundless compassion while often lacking staff and resources. 

“It’s a difficult time for nurses, and healthcare is constantly changing. College is just a license to learn, really, and a degree just gets you in the door. Learning doesn’t stop there.” 

Jensen sought to offset students’ financial hardships while honoring Gustai’s memory. 

Though she retired in 2022, Jensen keeps busy with community service. She is a consultant on accreditation surveys that evaluate behavioral health programs in rural areas. She also visits local hospitals with her therapy dog, Lucky. She still travels, making time to venture back to SDSU to meet her scholarship recipients. Asked what Gustai might tell the aspiring nurses who benefit from the memorial scholarship, she answered without hesitation. “Don’t take things for granted: your civil rights, being in a free country, and getting up every day with the chance to do what you want to do.”

At its core, the scholarship offers students not just the chance to learn without financial limits but to learn by Gustai’s example: a person who relished every sunset and sunrise; who relied on optimism in the face of adversity; who truly embodied what it’s like to live every day as your last. 

Through her generosity, Jensen is honoring some of the best kind of people — the ones who follow her footsteps into the nursing field and one with an adventurous soul, a penchant for positivity and a remarkable legacy left behind.