Nancy Hoff Anschuetz

Nancy and her mother were born 23 years apart, in the same house, and in the same bed, on a small island (Peaks) off the coast of Portland, Maine. The first sheltered years of Nancy’s life were cloistered - church suppers, baked beans and steamed clams. Nancy recently told a friend, “I hated it! There was nothing to do but walk around the perimeter of the island!”

These early years fostered a longing for Something More, and she spent the rest of her life in pursuit.

At the age of six, Nancy moved with her sister and mother to Chicago, to rejoin her father at his distant job. She was empathetic enough as a small child to note and appreciate her parents’ mutual joy at reunion, but it was the broad energy of the big city that captured her attention.

The family next relocated to New Rochelle, NY, where Nancy chose as her high school yearbook motto the thought from Psalm 45, “my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” Active in the Biology Club, she wanted “to go to college and be a doctor.” Ironically, she ended up at Wheaton College in Norton, MA, where she put her sharp tongue to use not as a scalpel but as an English Literature and Philosophy major, earning Phi Beta Kappa honors in her junior year, a feat of which she was immensely proud.

She was the epitome of the young sophisticated 1950s suburban mother, though did not completely fit in amidst the casual kid- and dog-centric framework of the neighborhood. She bore striking resemblance to Audrey Hepburn, wore shirtwaist dresses, read The Times, did the crosswords, listened to WQXR and played classical music on the HiFi. It wasn’t until 1967, when she and her husband parted ways and she was forced into the role of single parent and breadwinner, that she finally hit her stride.

She managed to land a job at MITRE Corp in Bedford, where at first they were not sure what to do with her. She evolved into their designated go-to person - if you need to know something, ask Nancy. She was Google before there was Internet. Her office looked like the aftermath of an F5 tornado, but whatever she needed, she could find it. MITRE at the time was (and perhaps even now still is) a world-class research and engineering factory, doing most of its work on behalf of the US Government and Armed Forces. Air Force Generals stalked the hallways. Finally she had found the Something More she’d been seeking her whole life.

Her life outside of work responded in kind. Finally she had friends with whom she could discuss the Big Questions. She became active in, and for many years was Chairperson of, the Concord Chorus, a well-regarded local group. She became active in IRAS (Institute for Religion in an Age of Science), the whole purpose of which was (and is) to dissect into atoms the Big Questions. She chaired and co-chaired a number of annual conferences for IRAS (a sample in 1995 was, “Life in the Universe,” which she described as “asking questions that will open our minds to inquire how the discovery of intelligent life in the universe will affect our understanding of who and what we are on Planet Earth”). Big Questions indeed. Hundreds of people attended.

She traveled - to Japan (seven times), Egypt, Romania, Russia, China and many times to Europe and the UK. She had boyfriends. She candle-pin bowled. She found Something More.

In the final 15 years of her life she lived at an independent living facility in Concord called Newbury Court. She kept largely to herself there, though was visited by her friends from her more active days. In the final year or two, declining health made things more difficult, until she finally passed away at the well-seasoned age of 97.

One of her great friends from IRAS, and indeed her co-chair for the Life in the Universe conference, was a Jesuit priest. On hearing of Nancy’s death, he wrote from his post in Rome at the Vatican Observatory to say:

“While I shall certainly offer a Mass for the repose of Nancy, I am sure she is with God. For all her surface sharpness and competence, Nancy had a deep down goodness, compassion, and love. Know that IRAS, owing her a huge debt for her long service, made her a lifetime Conference Coordinator.”

That seems a fitting memorial - to be remembered by an organization and also by a man dedicated wholly to the Big Questions. Something More indeed.

Nancy leaves her son, Christopher Anschuetz and his wife Nancy Prince of West Newton, MA; her grandson Nathaniel Anschuetz, his wife Puanani Apoliona-Brown and their daughter Kawehena Cooper Anschuetz of Brooklyn, NY; and her grandson Nicholas (Swift) Anschuetz and his wife Alison Emmerson of Framingham, MA.

Services at for Nancy at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord will be private.

Donations in her memory may be made to:
The Gardens at Newbury Court
80 Deaconess Road
Concord, MA 01742
978-369-5151
www.nedeaconess.org

Arrangements under the care of Concord Funeral Home, 74 Belknap Street, Concord, MA 01742  978-369-3388  www.concordfuneral.com