SUSIE LEMONT/Arizona Daily Wildcat A billboard commemorating the three professors who lost their lives in the Oct. 28 shooting at the College of Nursing stands along Broadway Boulevard.

When Don Burton was assigned the task of designing a billboard to honor the three professors who were murdered Oct. 28 at the College of Nursing, Burton looked to his own personal experience for the design.

Burton said that while his wife was being treated for leukemia, she always referred to the nurses who cared for her as "angels."

Appropriately, the billboard, which stands near Broadway Boulevard and Campbell Avenue, reads, "Our teaching angels · we will always remember."

The sign was completed the Thursday after the shooting. Burton, art director for ClearChannel Outdoor, tossed the phrase around in meetings with general manager Dave Sitton.

Sitton said that ClearChannel Outdoor employees decided to paint the billboard in remembrance of the professors, to help comfort the community. Such billboards usually cost "thousands of dollars," according to Sitton.

Sitton said he hopes seeing the billboard "will help families, and colleagues and students who were so deeply affected by this tragedy feel some comfort and remind them that we will not forget what happened that day."

Dr. Judith Berg, assistant professor in the college of nursing and chair of the faculty, said that while she has not seen the sign, she does think that its message is comforting to the community.

"It's absolutely a very nice gesture of support for the three fallen professors," Berg said. "I think that whenever the community demonstrates support in a time of great pain, it is really nice."

ClearChannel Outdoor has not yet decided when the sign will come down.

Burton said, however, that he thinks it will be up for more than a month.

"People feel strongly about people in that profession," he said, explaining how the sign serves the UA community. "And, in a way, those three are still taking care of people, even if they're not here any more."

According to Sitton, ClearChannel Outdoor has a history of erecting signs in the community for various causes, several of which have been UA-related.

Sitton said the company put up signs in memory of Bobby Olson in the spring of 2001 in both Tucson and Minneapolis, when the UA men's basketball team competed in the national championships there.

Currently, ClearChannel has signs up around town featuring Tucsonans and UA graduates, including one on I-10 discouraging drinking and driving, which was put up after a UA student was struck and killed by a drunken driver.