Carolyn Jourdan Reynolds

Carolyn Jourdan Reynolds, who was known by her childhood nickname “Candie,” passed away on July 31, 2024 at Elliot Hospital in Manchester, New Hampshire, following a heart attack. She was surrounded by her adult children and their spouses, her grandchildren, and her sister. Prior to hospitalization for pneumonia, Candie was living at her home in New London, New Hampshire with her daughter and son-in-law, where she delighted in visiting with friends and family, reading, and appreciating the flora and wildlife of her field and gardens. 

She will be remembered by all as an enthusiastic conversationalist who was deeply engaged with the world around her. Candie had an insatiable curiosity and loved learning about current events, history, international relations, literature and music. She had a profound appreciation of nature and kept a mental catalog of hundreds of flowers, plants, birds and trees. Candie was exceptionally compassionate and interested in advocating for equality, social justice, and sustainability. She and her husband Chet sponsored refugee families, hosted international students, and supported multiple environmental and conservation groups.  

Carolyn Jourdan Nichols was born on February 3, 1936 to Etheldria Jourdan Nichols and the Reverend Fessenden Arenberg Nichols of the Bronx, New York. Carolyn and her sisters, Marjorie Grace Nichols and Catherine Palmer Nichols grew up in the Bronx and Suffern, New York, where her father was a minister at Christ Church of Ramapo. After graduating from Suffern High School, Candie moved to South Hadley, Massachusetts to attend Mount Holyoke College, where she majored in history and music.

In 1956 Candie attended a conference run by the Canterbury Student Ministry Program of Trinity Church Boston, focusing on the relationship between psychiatry and religion, and met a recent Harvard University grad and medical student named Nicholas Chester Reynolds (“Chet”). They started corresponding and dating. After her college graduation in 1957, Candie moved to Boston and worked as an apprentice at Trinity’s Canterbury Program while Chet continued studies at Boston University School of Medicine. Their romance blossomed, and they were married in June of 1958 at Christ Church of Ramapo in Suffern, NY.  For the next few years they lived in Revere, Massachusetts and commuted to Boston, where Chet studied medicine and Candie worked at Church of Our Redeemer in Brookline by day, and at Mount Auburn Hospital’s laboratory in Cambridge at night. Between 1960 and 1963 Candie birthed 3 children and the young family moved to Providence, Rhode Island, and then Tampa, Florida for Chet’s surgical residencies. From 1965 to 1967, when Chet was drafted to a M.A.S.H. unit in Vietnam, Candie and the three young children lived in Suffern, New York with her parents. In 1967, the family reunited with Chet in Annapolis, Maryland for a year before settling in Andover, Massachusetts for the next 20 years. There, Candie became a volunteer at The Parish of Christ Church and at “Friends of the Library” at Memorial Hall Library. Candie and Chet were active; they played tennis and golf, and skied in North Conway and also in Grantham, New Hampshire, where they built a home at Eastman. In 1978, Candie and Chet built a summer cottage on Diamond Island in Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire, which was their “happy place” where they spent many summers together with loved ones. 

In 1981, Candie became the Coordinator for the Life Long Learning Program at Northern Essex Community College, where she enjoyed connecting learners and organizing educational courses and cultural outings. 

Chet and Candie were attracted to the historic New England town of New London, New Hampshire. They moved there in 1986, and quickly became active members of the community.  They attended Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church, where Candie joyfully sang in the choir, participated in the lecture series, and volunteered for “Memory Sing.” For years she sang alto in the Concord Chorale. Candie was involved with the Mount Holyoke Alumnae Association and the League of Women Voters. She was also an active member of a book discussion group that was hosted in Tracy Memorial Library. Chet and Candie delighted in travel and visited many countries throughout Europe and Asia, especially enjoying cruises on the Black Sea and the Rhine River.  The Reynolds were married and for 64 years, and they cared for each other until Chet’s  death at their New London home in May of 2022. 

Candie is survived by her sister, Catherine Palmer Nichols of East Middlebury, Vermont, her son Joshua Robert Reynolds and daughter-in-law Kate Adams Reynolds of Charlestown, Massachusetts, daughter Carolyn Reynolds Peach and son-in-law William Peach of Nashua, New Hampshire, daughter Rebecca Reynolds Moore and son-in-law Gerald Moore of Lexington, Massachusetts and her nine grandchildren, Adam Stone Reynolds, Nicholas Robinson Reynolds, Elizabeth Jourdan Reynolds, Laura Jourdan Palmer, Jonathan Nicholas Peach, Heather Marie Peach, Grace Elizabeth Moore, Charlotte Jourdan Moore and Emily Jillian Moore, as well as her nephew Lowell Peirce McKelvey of Portland, Oregon and her niece Cara McKelvey Baggott of Colchester, Vermont.

A celebration of life service will be held for Carolyn on Sunday, October 13 at 1pm at Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church in New London, New Hampshire followed by a reception and “hootennana” at The Pavilion at the John Hay Estate at Fells, in Newbury, NH.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Carolyn’s name to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Mount Holyoke College Alumnae Association, The John Hay Estate at The Fells, or the Sierra Club.