Cynthia Cooke Nyary

NEW GLOUCESTER, MAINE - Cynthia Cooke Nyary of New Gloucester, Maine, died peacefully at her home on Sept. 18, 2025. She was 97.

To say someone was "a learner" was Cynthia's greatest compliment. To her it meant that anyone was redeemable, however imperfect, if they remained curious and brave. And Cynthia was the consummate learner.

Born in Bay City, Mich., on July 8, 1928, Cynthia spent many summers at New Hampshire's Squam Lake, where her step-grandfather, Laurence Webster, owned property. She also spent two blissful summers riding horses at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp in Colorado. She graduated from Bay City Central High School in 1946.

Coming from a small midwestern city, where her boyfriend was the captain of the football team and her father was a beloved man of the town and the president of Jennison Hardware, Cynthia landed at eclectic Bennington College in the late 1940s. It was a foreign world to a naive, pretty young woman; she would tell stories about listening to the Weavers and watching Martha Graham dance, and how Peter Drucker was her advisor, Erich Fromm and Stanely Kunitz were among her professors, and she babysat for Shirley Jackson.

She graduated in 1950 and moved to New York City, where she met her first husband, Nicholas Nyary. After a stint in Berlin when he was in the service, they moved to Weston, Mass., and then Wellesley. The mother of three small children, she received a masters in early childhood development from Wheelock College. She taught elementary school in what was then known as the Fruit Street School in Ashland, Mass., for 15 years, and later earned a CAGS.

When her first marriage ended, like so many in the early 1970s, she dove into learning more about who she was and what she wanted out of life. She joined a singles group and made as many women friends as men. She attended weekends at the Rowe Conference Center in the Massachusetts Berkshires and she co-led consciousness-raising groups for others like her. She made a friend who took her sailing off the Maine coast for many Augusts. She developed a sense of humor that only sharpened as she aged.

And in 1981, she and her best friend, Pat Glasgow, started what was to become a social/support group that they called Outrageous Women. For close to four decades, upwards of a dozen women met regularly at each other's houses for brunch and occasional weekends.

Cynthia met the love of her life, her second husband, Donald Levitan, in 1994, just as each of them was retiring. Eventually settling in Northampton, Mass., they loved to travel to New York City to see the opera and they would also go to the showings at the local cinema, always with peanut butter and apple sandwiches to sustain them.

She and Don traveled extensively with the organization now known as Road Scholar, including to Egypt, a boat trip down the Danube, and a six-week visit to China. They volunteered at the Northampton Survival Center and were active in the Lathrop Community where they lived. She took courses with the Five College Learning in Retirement program and exercise classes at the Hampshire YMCA. She made several close friends.

Cynthia adored her grandchildren, who when they were small would grab a book and climb into her lap to be read to. She recognized each one for who they were and met them there, including talking books and politics, sharing meals, and swapping stories about everyone's travels.

She enjoyed cooking, which she taught herself to do by studying cookbooks from the library. She was an excellent knitter and for many years family and friends could expect socks for Christmas. She also knit a dozen sweaters for adults and grandchildren. She gardened into her late eighties.

In 2022 Cynthia moved from Easthampton, Mass., to Maine, where she would watch the birds for hours, taking special delight in the hummingbirds and the cardinals. She grew close to her caretaker, Dorrie Pratt; they particularly enjoyed the adaptive exercise class at the Freeport YMCA. She looked forward to monthly game nights with extended family and always held her own.

A voracious reader to the very end, Cynthia always had at least one book going - usually two or three - and if you were careless with your reading you could usually track it down next to her bed. She read the newspaper every day until the week before she died.

She made friends up until her last days. Under the care of Andwell Health Partners hospice, she chatted up the aides and the nurses, cooing over photos of their children and asking them about their lives. She wasn't afraid to die, she said, she was wondering what it would be like.

In short, she was a learner throughout her life: curious, brave - and deeply loved.

Cynthia is survived by her three daughters: Bondi Nyary of Portland, Ore.; Cate Nyary (Maurizio Trevisan) of Rome, Italy; and Sasha Nyary (Kris Wills) of New Gloucester, Maine; and by her cat, Pamela.

She also leaves four grandchildren: Jordan Wysong of Portland, Ore., Anneke Levine of Williamsburg, Mass., Jonah Levine of Grenada Hills, Calif.; and Lily Ruderman of Holyoke, Mass.

She is survived by her sister, Judy Cooke Hanson of Portland, Ore. She was predeceased by her late husband, Donald Levitan.

Additionally, Cynthia is survived by four stepchildren: Julie Levitan Rockowitz of New Rochelle, N.Y.; Neal Levitan of Las Vegas, Nev.; David Levitan of Sharon, Mass.; and Ben Levitan of Weston, Mass.

A celebration of life will be held in New Gloucester, Maine, on July 11, 2026. When you are in Northampton, Mass., you can visit her and Don's bench in Look Memorial Park, located near the footbridge by the entrance.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Maine Audubon at https://maineaudubon.org/support/ways-to-give/ or give to your local public library.