Nancy Neusbaum Dolbeare

1929 - 2016

Nancy Lou Neusbaum Dolbeare

1929 - 2016 RUTLAND, VT In the early morning of April 1st, 2016, Nancy passed away peacefully at her home in Rutland, Vermont. Nancy was born March 9, 1929 in State College Pennsylvania, the first of two daughters, to Frank and Louetta Neusbaum. Nancy enjoyed her school years and loved growing up in State College. She and her sister, Helen Neusbaum Goodwin were best friends growing up and remained so throughout Nancy's life. Those who met Nancy as an adult were immediately put at ease by her open acceptance and honesty, both values instilled in her by her father Frank. Although at first meeting some might have thought Nancy quiet or retiring, those who stuck around for a few minutes were soon rewarded by her open and enthusiastic love of life and laughter, both of which she knew in her mother Louetta. Known in school as smart and a talented singer and artist, Nancy was also loved by her classmates for her beautiful smile and ready laughter. She is remembered by her high school classmates as "Nancy with the laughing face." As an undergraduate student at Penn State, Nancy studied Art and Design and took every opportunity to practice her life-long love of song as a member of the Chapel Choir, Treble Singers, Thespians Mixed Chorus, and Bel Cantos. After college, in her usual self-effacing way, Nancy would describe the transition to professional designer as something that happened because she didn't know enough for it not to. Informed by her father Frank that it was time she left home and get a job, she packed up her portfolio, took herself to a major department store in Philadelphia and asked for a job as designer. The woman in charge, impressed by this unknown young lady's portfolio-- and no doubt charmed, because Nancy was who she was-- hired her. After marrying Kenneth Marsh Dolbeare on December 12, 1953, Nancy moved to Ocean View, Virginia while Ken completed his service in the Navy. She remembered their first apartment fondly because it was on Willoughby Bay and had a view of Chesapeake Bay and she didn't have to wear shoes for a year. After the Navy, the couple moved to Hempstead, Long Island where Nancy continued her career as designer and illustrator for a department store's advertising department, and Ken completed law school. In December 1961 Nancy gave birth to her dear daughter Patty. In January of 1963 her son Timmy was born. In 1965, finding herself a divorcee and single mother at a time when women were often denied things as basic as the right to enter a contract without a co-signer, Nancy took herself to the graduate school of Hofstra University, where she earned a Masters degree in Education. In 1969 she moved to the Berkshires, a place she'd visited briefly and loved, and began her 27 year career as an elementary school teacher. In Pittsfield, Nancy resumed her love of and participation in the arts, taking roles as both cast and crew with the Town Players theater group, a singer with the Berkshire Concert Choir, Oratorio Choir, and the Stockbridge Festival Choir. Nancy also served on the boards of the Winter-Spring Concerts at the Berkshire Museum, and South Mountain Concerts. During the 1970s and 1980s Nancy and her friends Dot & Al Rowe, Bob and Anna Pollock, Adelle Michaud, and many others were part of the vibrant heart of the local Unitarian Universalist community. Together with her fellow teachers and dear friends Carol Jones and Sylvia Gingras, and many others, Nancy helped create and share in a local community steeped in the love and support of music, theater, arts, and having a damn good time. During that same period, Nancy was in the midst of her teaching career. She brought to her students the same love of life she shared with her friends. Nancy's innovative approach to teaching was 40 years ahead of its time. She retired in the mid 1990's, much loved by the young lives she touched. For the past two years, Nancy and Patty were fortunate to live just miles apart from each other. They saw each other almost every day. Although Alzheimer's had inhibited Nancy's speech, it in no way lessened her ability to interact kindly with others. Wrapped in the loving community of Holbrook's Adult Home, and ultimately The Meadows at East Mountain, Nancy continued to make friends by drawing people to her with her smile. We will remember Nancy for many things; masked visits at Christmas time, the scent of Bain de Soleil in the summer, her laughter almost any time, and her uncanny ability to have a sip of champagne while standing on her head. Many will recall her greatest gift and maybe struggle to define it-- a generosity of spirit, an open heart, a willful innocence, love-- even as we continue to cherish it, and her. Nancy is survived by her sister Helen Goodwin and her husband Hank, her daughter Patty Lea and husband Jim, her son Tim Dolbeare and wife Traci, her grandchildren Joseph Lea and Amelia Dolbeare, nieces Pam Graham and Kim Breese, and her nephew Stephen Goodwin. FUNERAL SERVICE: There will be a celebration of Nancy's life at the Pittsfield Unitarian Universalist Church, 175 Wendell Avenue at 11:00 AM on Saturday April 16. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be considered for The Unitarian Universalist Church 175 Wendell Avenue Pittsfield, MA 01201 or to Holbrook's Adult Home Activity Fund 73 North St Granville, NY 12832.