NANCY TOMASKO

TOMASKO--Nancy Norton. 71, died December 28, from complications of cancer. She was a teacher, researcher, and editor whose specialties included Chinese bookbinding, handmade paper, and woodblock printing. After college, on a lark she went to teach English at the YMCA in Taipei, Taiwan. It was the start of a lifelong fascination with China and things Chinese. She was in one of the early groups of US graduate students to study in mainland China in the early 1980s. Later Nancy received a PhD in Ming literature from Princeton University and taught at Connecticut College and Bryn Mawr where she created an extraordinary studio course on the history of the book in China. She also taught numerous workshops on Chinese bookbinding. Her greatest interest was documenting Chinese handmade paper, talking with many papermakers and dealers in China. She gave talks, wrote articles, and prepared sample books. Professionally she was for a decade the editor of the East Asian Library Journal at Princeton. In recent years Nancy was a devoted volunteer in the Christian Science Reading Room on Madison Avenue at 73rd Street. She was always fond of animals. Nancy is survived by her husband of 33 years, Mark D. Tomasko. A gathering to celebrate her life and memory will be held in the next several months. If desired, contributions in her memory may be made to Farm Sanctuary, P.O. Box 150, Watkins Glen, New York, 14891, or Hand Papermaking, P.O. Box 50859, Mendota, MN, 55150.