Nancy Lee Rick

1941 - 2019

Nancy Lee Rick
1941-2019
Nancy "Nan" Lee Rick, of Boise, ID, passed away on March 17th, 2019 in Boise, Idaho. Nan was born April 21, 1941 in Cleveland, Ohio to Robert C. and Virginia B. Rick. Throughout her years, she carried an intense intellect, creative mind, positive spirit, and insatiable curiosity. She seemed to always look for an artistic spin to her life and enjoyed traveling the world often cherishing new-found insight, joyous adventure and stimulating conversation.
Nan spent her childhood in the Cleveland, Ohio area and outside of Chicago, Illinois. She graduated from New Trier High School (Winnetka, IL) in 1959. During her high school years, she spent two years in India and one in Switzerland.
Nan graduated from Cornell University in 1963 and was a proud member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. Nan nurtured her passion and curiosity for new and interesting places during her college years. She spent a semester abroad in Munich, Germany, a summer in Milan, Italy and two summers working in Glacier National Park. Her last summer during college, she particularly enjoyed operating a small coffee house on Nantucket Island.
After college, Nan spent time working in both San Francisco and New York City. One of her most notable accomplishments during this time was NanCraft, Inc., a wholesale gift business which she started and ran for 12 years. This business grew quickly, and she eventually moved herself and the business to a 130-acre farm setting in rural upstate New York. Her farm allowed her to learn the art of raising sheep, pigs and wool carding. Nan soon grew her wholesale business from simple macramé plant holders to pottery and eventually combined it all into a specialty restaurant known as Shepherd's. During this busy time in her life, she met her husband of many years, Niels O. Young, an inventor and physicist. Together, they had two children, Jordan Rick-Young and Virginia "Gina" Rick-Young (Dyer).
Nan continued to nurture her curiosity of new ventures. She moved her family from New York to Virginia and briefly to California. In 1984, she found Eagle, Idaho as the ideal location to raise a family and have a sheep farm collectively. Nan continued to balance her love for art and business and opened what was known as 10th Street Book Gallery and subsequently Thursday's Bookstore in downtown Boise. During this time, she earned a master's degree in education from Boise State University. While her children were in elementary school, it was important to her to introduce a more disciplined art curriculum and therefore she founded the Art Mom/Dad program in Idaho. This program quickly spread statewide and is still used today.
Nan simply never liked to turn down an opportunity to combine art, adventure and international travel. Over the years, she truly enjoyed exploring South America, Africa, Asia, India, Russia, Europe, and Canada. Nan's adventurous personality also took her to Christchurch, New Zealand where she lived happily for almost ten years.
Nan was very active in the local Boise community and continuously immersed herself in activities and group organizations. She truly enjoyed art, literature, movies, music and spending time with her family and friends. Her profound compassion, artistic personality, genuine world curiosity, sincere life wisdom and beautiful smile will be greatly missed. She was known to say if asked how she was doing that she was "dancing with the Universe." She also said, "I hope matching my evolution with yours will allow you to dance out in the sun rather than in a fog."
Please join us in celebrating her life on Saturday, April 13th, 2019 at 3pm at The Idaho Botanical Garden.
Nan is survived by her son Jordan Rick-Young (Nina Selvage), daughter Virginia "Gina" (John) Dyer; grandkids, Emily, Brian, Brendan and Brady and her sister, Lin (Dan) Rosenthal. The family would like to thank the staff of St. Luke's Hospice for their sincere compassion and loving care.