Nancy Martenis

Nancy (Clapp) Martenis, 87, of Burlington, Vt., died surrounded by family on August 8, 2025. She was born on June 5, 1938, in New York City to Lewis C. Clapp and Lois (Halliday) Clapp. After her first three months in their crowded Greenwich Village apartment, they moved to Brooklyn Heights and more space.
The Heights was like a rather small village at that time, from Atlantic Avenue to the Brooklyn Bridge in one direction and the New York Harbor to City Hall in the other. Growing up, Nancy walked one block to Grace Church, where she sang in the choir. It was five blocks to the Packer Collegiate Institute, where she was a student for 12 years before matriculating at Wellesley College, where she received a BA in English in 1960.
In 1961, she married Allen G. Shepherd, teaching at the Lincoln School in Providence while he did graduate work at Brown University and at Friends Select in Philadelphia while he earned a PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. It was there that their first child, Sarah, was born. Five months later they had the good fortune to live at Fort Ethan Allen in University of Vermont faculty housing, where the family met lifelong friends.
After one Vermont winter, Nancy decided she would have to learn to ski or go back to school. School seemed safer, so she enrolled in a master of arts in teaching program in English at UVM and graduated one baby later after welcoming their second child, Elizabeth, in 1968, at which point the family moved to Burlington.
Nancy was a wonderful, devoted mother and friend. She spent happy years at home raising Sarah and Elizabeth, whom she enjoyed taking to the movies, summer visits to Michigan, and for whom she sewed great Halloween costumes. She instilled in her daughters a love of family tradition including cider ice cubes at Thanksgiving and Christmas cookie frosting parties using her mother's molasses cookie recipe and copper cookie cutters made by her father.
Nancy returned to work in 1978 at a federally funded program for first-generation college students at UVM as a writing skills instructor. This led to her earning a second master's degree at Saint Michael's College in teaching English as a second language and creating courses for international students at UVM. Nancy loved her students and enjoyed hosting potluck dinners at the end of each semester, encouraging students to bring their favorite dish, music or game to share with their classmates. Much fun ensued!
Nancy was a wonderful cook and always a gracious, welcoming hostess. She threw terrific, themed birthday parties, including Sarah's sixth birthday with real turtles as party favors! Over the years, she made curtains for just about every one of her daughters' apartments and houses, which always made them feel at home.
Nancy married Thomas W. Martenis in 1985, who predeceased her in 2014. Tom and Nancy had a happy marriage and enjoyed each other, their families and friends, and quite extensive travel, including a month in Zimbabwe just after her retirement from UVM in 1996.
Nancy is survived by her two daughters, Sarah Shepherd (Mike Barnes) of Milton, Vt., and Elizabeth Montemayor (Jose) and grandsons Henry and Charlie Montemayor of Natick, Mass.; her brother, James Clapp of Elberta, Mich., and his children: Jennifer Clapp, Deborah Halliday, Daniel Clapp and Becky Hunt, and their children and spouses; and Tom's five children and nine grandchildren. The family wants to thank the Converse Home and Bayada Hospice for the kind and compassionate care they provided Nancy and her family.
Arrangements are in the care of the Cremation Society of Chittenden County, a division of Ready Funeral & Cremation Services.