Ann E. Scheer-Forcier

1953 - 2022

Ann E. Scheer-Forcier

Conway, MA — She was the best partner you could wish for on life's journey. When she left us, our lives lost their luster.

Ann E. Scheer-Forcier was a devoted mother, a dedicated nurse, an educator, and a dauntless travel photographer with an artistic eye and sensibility that permeated her flower gardens and every corner of her lovingly decorated colonial home in Conway. She was taken from us, far too early, on July 3 due to complications from cancer.

For most of her 69 years, Ann used her cameras to capture the world around her and her journey through it — from the earliest days of Kodak and Polaroid, through years of child rearing and career changes, to today's world of digital photography and online forums. Her photos were used by Fodor's travel books and inspired anyone who saw them, whether a seasoned traveler or someone who simply aspired to roam the world.

While her early career was in college administration, she spent several years as a basketmaker while her children were young, selling in area outlets like the Old Deerfield Craft Fairs. Time spent with a preemie in neonatal intensive care inspired her to become a nurse, and in quick order her attention to detail, organizational aptitude, deft management skills, and common sense led her to become a nurse educator at Greenfield Community College, helping to launch the careers of many of the Valley's nurses.

Over the past 20 years, she traveled to dozens of countries in Europe, but did so with a strict eye on economy, relishing that she could travel independently for a fraction of what some paid for tours. Ann experienced each trip at least three times: first via detailed planning, once on the ground, shooting thousands of photos as she went, and later at home editing and organizing all the images, which made their way online and into her travel books.

Born in New York City on May 3, 1953, she was raised on Long Island by her mother, Jean McDonald, and her stepfather, James McDonald. As a child, she spent many happy summers visiting her grandfather in the Finger Lakes of upstate New York, where she made friends who lasted a lifetime — as all her good friends did.

Ann graduated from the University of New Hampshire in Durham with a bachelor's degree in 1975. She married in 1976, and then went on to earn a master's degree in education and worked in college administration – including as assistant to the dean at Smith College in Northampton – before transitioning to nursing while making and selling baskets as a stay-at-home mom. She earned an associate's degree in nursing from GCC and a bachelor of science in nursing from UMass Amherst.

After working at area medical offices and hospitals, she was invited to teach in GCC's Practical Nursing Program in 1996, a position from which she retired in 2020 as a full professor. The program was a good fit, because she was nothing if not practical in all things.

She leaves her husband, George Forcier of Conway; three children, Maggie of Northampton (and her husband Morgan Buchanan-Gauthier), Kaitlin of Brooklyn, NY, (and her partner Harry Burson) and Jeffrey of Madison, NJ (and his wife Danielle Keenan); a stepsister, Cathy Stefanik of Hebron, KY; brother-in-law Alan Rochussen and sister-in-law (and fellow traveler) Allison Rochussen of Beaufort, SC; cousins and step-nieces.

A remembrance will be held Aug. 20 from 2 to 4 p.m. at Ann's 10 Pine Hill Road, Conway, home among her gardens and with an outdoor gallery of her travel photos. The family requests that you take a home Covid test that morning and send your regrets if you test positive.