Nancy Newcomb Wortman

1930 - 2025

Nancy Newcomb Wortman
08/09/1930 - 10/07/2025
On October 7 2025, Nancy Wortman peacefully passed away at home with her family by her side. She was 95 years old.
Nancy Eleanor Newcomb was born on August 9 1930 to Marguerite and Cortland Newcomb in Rochester NY. She attended public schools in Pittsford NY and graduated from Pittsford High School with a perfect score on her Latin Regents exam. Nancy attended Purdue University for her first year of college and then transferred to Syracuse University where she completed her BA. While there, she met her future husband Al. They married in 1954 with one condition from Nancy - that Al had to make her laugh every single day of their lives together, a promise which he kept up to the end. The free-spirited couple drove across country in 1957 to make a life in San Francisco, where they settled in and lovingly raised 4 daughters. In the mid 1980's, Nancy returned to City College of SF studying Library Science, after which she worked as a SF Public Library Technician for 22 years.
Nancy was an avid daily walker and tennis player. She became a yoga practitioner in the 1960's and was still able to manage a head stand well into her eighties. Nancy had a love of literature, which started with secretly reading novels in bed late at night as a child, and which later grew into 55 years of participation with the Great Books Foundation where she made lifelong friends. She had a passion for the arts and subscribed to SF Ballet and SF Symphony yearly for 5 decades. Debussy, Brahms, and Mahler were among her favorite classical composers, but when pressed, she admitted that she treasured them all.
Nancy loved animals (especially dogs), and was a constant supporter of environmental causes and human rights. She also reveled in any kind of celebration with family and friends and never wanted the party to end, often wondering why everyone was heading home "so early" at 2am.
Most of all, Nancy loved her family. She was a devoted mom, an adoring grandmother and great grandmother, and the firm center of the family at all times. Nancy was preceded in death by her husband of 56 years Alvin (Al) Wortman, and survived by her 4 daughters: Melissa (Jeff), Ellen (Robert), Beth (George) and Erica (Kevin), 6 grandchildren, and 1 great grandchild.
Friends are invited to attend a celebration of life for Nancy on Sunday March 22, 2026 at the Park Chalet Restaurant, 1000 Great Hwy in San Francisco from 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm.
Donations may be made in Nancy's name to any of the following organizations which she ardently supported: ASPCA, Planned Parenthood, Environmental Defense Fund, ACLU, Doctors Without Borders, Sierra Club, Earth Justice, WildCare. World Wildlife Fund, NRBC, Project Open Hand, and Amnesty International.