Nancy Lee Isaksen Lieber

LIEBER

NANCY LEE ISAKSEN LIEBER

Nancy Lieber, long-time resident of Washington, DC, died on November 17, 2023, with her family at her side in Chevy Chase, MD, after a two-year struggle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). She was born on February 14, 1943, in Madison, Wisconsin, to Edith (Kelly) and Leon Isaksen. Nancy frequently regaled others with memories of a happy and snowy childhood with her sister Karen (now of California) and brother Greggar (now deceased).

Nancy graduated from the University of Wisconsin, where she met her future husband, Robert "Bob" Lieber â€" whom she referred to as "the smartest and funniest guy I had ever met" â€" at the Rathskeller in the UW student union. She earned her BA in Political Science in 1964 and joined her new husband Bob in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where they pursued graduate degrees in Political Science â€" Nancy a Ph.D. from Tufts University, Bob a Ph.D. from Harvard University. The following ten years included teaching at U.C. Davis, the birth of two sons (Ben and Keir), and sabbaticals in Oxford, London, and Paris. In 1980, Nancy and her family relocated to Washington, DC, where Bob joined Georgetown University and Nancy started on a journey of political staffing, first as the Director of Research and then as Director of Policy at the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Nancy was eventually lured to the private sector, where she became a real estate agent with Begg and then Long & Foster, and remained a practicing and well-respected realtor until shortly before her death. Her final days were spent at home with her family including her husband, her sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren.

She was a voracious reader of novels and history and especially loved historical fiction. She swam laps daily, played tennis into her final summer, baked a mean layer cake, traveled all over the word, and took great pleasure in spending time with her six grandchildren. In addition to her husband of 59 years, Nancy is survived by her two sons Benjamin Lieber (Rachel) and Keir Lieber (Meredith Bowers), both of Washington, DC, and grandchildren Sophie, Isabel, Nate, Sydney, Lucy, and Delilah. There will be a memorial service at a later date.

Nancy's family welcomes contributions in her honor to the ALS Association [donate.als.org], which supported Nancy as she struggled with this cruel and ravaging disease, Montgomery Hospice [montgomeryhospice.org], which supported Nancy in her final days, and Compassion and Choices [compassionandchoices.org], a national nonprofit devoted to expanding end-of-life choices, including medical aid in dying, so that others with terminal illnesses are afforded better options and increased dignity in how they chose to live their last days.