Nancy Runnells

1930 - 2016

Nancy Morgan Runnells
1930-2016
Nancy Morgan Runnells passed away peacefully in Houston on May 29, 2016, following a brief illness.
Nancy was born on February 24, 1930, in Evanston, Illinois, to Truman Oliver Morgan and his wife, Jean Silsby Morgan, and spent her childhood in Illinois and Bronxville, New York. She attended Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, and moved to Houston in 1960. Nancy married Clive Runnells in 1967, and together they raised her six children and her three stepchildren.
Nancy was an accomplished athlete, having won several Club Championships in Singles and Doubles at Houston Country Club and River Oaks Country Club. A lifelong supporter of numerous civic and charitable endeavors, Nancy was a co-founder and Board member of The Gathering Place, a clubhouse providing psychosocial rehabilitative services to thousands of members with severe and persistent mental illness over the past three decades. She also helped to establish the Nancy, Clive and Pierce Runnells Distinguished Chair in Neuroscience of the Vivian L. Smith Center for Neurologic Research, and the Nancy, Clive and Pierce Runnells Distinguished Professorship in Emergency Medicine. Nancy, along with her husband Clive Runnells, was a supporter of Dr. Rick Wetsel's and Dr. Eva Zsigmond's stem cell research at the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases. Drs. Wetsel and Zsigmond developed the NIH certified NMR1 stem cell line, which is named after Nancy.
Nancy was a member of the River Oaks Country Club, the Bayou Club, the Ocean Reef Club and the Anglers Club in Key Largo, Florida, the Colony Club in New York City, and the Iron City Fishing Club in Ontario, Canada.
Nancy is survived by her husband of 47 years, Clive Runnells and her children, Amy Goodrich and husband Hart; Jeff Firestone and wife Heather; Calvin Garwood and wife Sally; and John Garwood; her stepchildren, Helen Runnells DuBois and husband Ray; Clive Runnells III and wife Kathryn; and Anne Conner and husband Tom; her grandchildren, Elisa del Valle, Matthew Goodrich, Stephen Firestone, Andrew Firestone and Grace Firestone; her step-grandchildren, Pierre DuBois; Mary DuBois; Clive Runnells IV; Dudley Tarlton and wife Dessie; Katie Hamilton and husband Kollin; Emily Hempel and husband Peter; and Will Conner; five step-great-grandchildren; and her sisters, Elizabeth Morgan Chase and Ellen Scott. She is preceded in death by her sons, David Firestone and Pierce Runnells.
A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, June 4, at one o'clock in the afternoon, at The Church of St. John the Divine, 2450 River Oaks Boulevard, in Houston, with the Reverend John Pitts officiating. Honorary pallbearers are Billy Griffith, Alexander K. McLanahan, Ralph S. O'Connor, and James M. Peters. A reception will follow the service at The Bayou Club.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you make a donation to support the UTHealth Embryonic Stem Cell Research program. Please send your donations, made payable to UTHealth, Office of Development, PO Box 1321, Houston, TX 77251 or call Michael Musters at 713-500-3203.