(The site is in progress. Photos, captions to come! Link to her downloadable bio)
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/
1942-2023 • A life well lived
The shorter story:
Nancy’s life was marked by her love of friends, kids, family (and people in general), music and the arts, Williams Bay, her church communities, dogs and cats, as well as traveling, introducing people to each other, playing piano, laughing, attending local music performances, reading, and self development.
She was born October 17, 1942 in Chicago, the third child of Glenn and Adelyn Grimes.
In the mid-1940s, her family moved to Williams Bay, Wisconsin on Lake Geneva, a wonderful place for kids to grow up and where Nancy made lifelong friends, many of whom she saw at regular high school reunions.
She went on to earn a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from the University of Colorado.
In the summer of 1964, she and her little sister Joan toured Europe for two months. Then in 1967, she joined Joan to work in London for the Department of the Navy.
She returned to California in 1969 to work for the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena.
In the 1970s, she moved to Massachusetts with friends and stayed there for about 40 years, working in administration for Cambridge firms such as Abt Associates and Repligen. After earning a master’s degree in human resources, she went on to work for several years as the human resources director for the Harvard Divinity School.
Her last job was serving as membership director for First Parish Church of Stow-Acton (Unitarian Universalist). That is where she met Ed Steinfeld and was married in 2012 with many of the church’s members taking part in the ceremony. She had a great pack of friends (“my gang”) in the area with whom she shared regular celebrations, film night, book group, and meditation.
Remembering her days growing up on a Wisconsin lake and thinking her husband would like to finally sail the little catboat he dreamt of owning, she found a house on the shore of Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin, and they picked up (including with her Steinway grand piano) and moved there. When snow shoveling started to bother their knees after a few years, they moved to a retirement community for more security and community.
Even as her memory faded, her charming manners and love of people (as well as her headstrong ways) endured. She died nine months after her husband died of cancer. She leaves behind her sister Joan, her stepdaughter Carol, her son-in-law Dan, nieces and nephews and other friends and family, whom she dearly loved.
Think of Nancy when you introduce people who “must” meet each other.
Nancy playing piano in 2018
Some photos—more to come with captions!
