Nancy Keeler McCormick, a resident of Fishkill, died at Vassar Brothers Medical Center on Thursday, October 31, 2013. She was 80.
She was born in 1933 in White Plains, New York, daughter of James Harold Keeler and Ethelind Sleeper Keeler. While raising a family in Manhattan and Greenwich, Connecticut, she contributed to a number of community groups and projects, including the League of Women Voters and the Greenwich History initiative. As a mid-life, returning student, she earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Social Work from the College of New Rochelle and Fordham University. She served for twenty years as Clinic Director and Site Supervisor of the Astor Child Guidance Clinic in Rhinebeck, New York. After her retirement in 2000 she pursued a variety of interests and activities, from multi-media craft design to physical fitness classes. Through Hands on the Hudson she served, too, as a volunteer ombudsman at a local senior residence.
She had a gift for friendship, and in the course of her life she formed bonds with people of different backgrounds, ages, and kinds. Her strong community spirit made her a natural catalyst for social engagement and collective action. She possessed a rare combination of warmth and wit: she will be missed for her vitality and intelligence, as well as for her playful and creative spirit.
She was predeceased by her brothers James Keeler and William Keeler, and by her son Jeffrey McCormick. She is survived by her two daughters, Jennifer McCormick Ludlow and her husband Lewis of Madison, Connecticut and Eve McCormick Millard and her husband Jay of Tappan, New York; by her two granddaughters, Zoë and Grace Millard; by her friend and housemate, Judith Saunders of Fishkill, New York; and by numerous nieces and nephews.
A Memorial Service will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 16 at the McHoul Funeral Home of Fishkill, Inc., 1089 Main Street, Fishkill, New York.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the American Cancer Society, 6725 Lyons Street, East Syracuse, NY 13057, www.cancer.org.
For directions, online condolences, and memorial donations, please visit Nancy's Book of Memories at www.mchoulfuneralhome.com.