Nancy N. Wendel

– Nancy Hathaway Nickerson Wendel, 94, passed away on Monday, Nov. 21, 2016, at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Elaine and Arthur Nickerson on Oct. 28, 1922. A graduate of Roland Park Country School, she went on to attend Bard Avon Business College to study secretarial skills and civic law, later working as a medical secretary.

In 1941, she married Charles Esher Ford in Baltimore and, in time, they had three sons, Charles, John and Richard. Nancy and Charles separated in 1954 and divorced in 1958. Soon after the divorce, Nancy met Clarence Adami Wendel of Butte, who was then working at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C. Clarence was a widower with two sons of his own, Terry and Tracy. Shortly thereafter in 1959, Nancy and Clarence united their respective families of boys together in marriage.

The family resided in Baltimore until 1961 when Clarence entered the Foreign Service, a development that took them to Ankara, Turkey for the next eight years. While in Ankara, Nancy was busy raising five boys and, at the same time, performing a wide range of valuable services that promoted both humanitarian causes, and friendship and cultural exchange – from working with orphaned Turkish and Kurdish children to serving as the president of the Turkish American Women’s Cultural Society. Upon completion of the Ankara posting in 1969, Clarence’s next assignment took the family to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where they lived until 1974, at which point Clarence retired, and Nancy and Clarence moved to Missoula. In Missoula, Nancy followed up on her many interests, volunteer and otherwise, such as working with the Red Cross, the Missoula Art Museum, Meals on Wheels, and hiking with the University Women’s Group and singing with the Missoula Chorale. She also adored living in the house of her dreams, a former homestead in the upper Rattlesnake.

Nancy was known to all for her wit and her joy of life. As one dear friend who knew her well put it, “Her mind was always sharp, her sense of character and a good story always acute, her whooping laughter a burst of light in dispiriting times.” To her sons, Nancy was foremost about a mother’s love: love that insisted on a high moral and ethical standard from her children; but also, love that seemed to have no bounds and that continues to sustain her children and grandchildren in their own lives.
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She is survived by four sons, Terence of Hedgesville, West Virginia, Charles of Fort Worth, Texas, John of Istanbul, Turkey, and Richard of Reno, Nevada; and six grandsons Geoffrey, Stephen, Christopher, Cory, Elliot, and Basil. She was preceded in death by her husband Clarence, son Tracy and grandson Barton. Cremation has taken place with Garden City Funeral Home, Missoula in charge of the arrangements. At her request, there will be no formal service. A memorial celebration of her life will be held when the family can gather together in the summer of 2017. Contributions may be made to the Missoula Public Library.