Nancy Hayes Dean

1928 - 2023

Nancy Hayes Dean

Norwich, VT - Nancy Hayes Dean passed away peacefully on July 7, 2023, exactly six months to the day after the passing of her beloved husband, Robert Charles Dean, Jr.

Nancy was born on February 10, 1928, in Brookline, MA to Edith Miller Hayes and Edwin Junius Hayes.

Nancy attended Wellesley College as a member of the class of 1949, where at a dance she met her future husband, Bob Dean, an MIT engineering student. They married in 1951. After five years of Bob's teaching at MIT, the family moved to Easton, PA where Bob joined Ingersoll-Rand Corporation and Nancy began a lifelong association with the League of Women Voters (LWV). Nancy, Bob and their, by then, four children moved to the Upper Valley in 1960, when Bob joined Dartmouth College's Thayer School of Engineering. They briefly lived in Plainfield, NH before moving to Norwich, VT in 1961, shortly after the arrival of their fifth child, who was born in Hanover, NH.

For seventeen years while the family lived in Norwich's 1820 House across Main Street from Dan & Whit's General Store, Nancy continued to serve the LWV, first on the state board, then as President of the Hanover (now Upper Valley) chapter, as moderator on candidate's nights, parliamentarian for the NH State Convention, and as a delegate to national conventions. She was active in the Wellesley Alumni Association as class president and with the Five-College Book Sale for almost 40 years. Nancy loved the Norwich community and over the years served on the Norwich Planning Board, the town's Development Review Board, as a Justice of the Peace, and worked at the Norwich Public Library.

Since childhood, Nancy had a strong sense of her family's Scottish connections and traced her lifelong love of the country to visits by her mother's great uncle, Colonel Walter Scott of Brooklyn, NY. She was "Scottie" to her college friends, and in 1950 made her first of numerous trips to Scotland. Most travels to Scotland were to study Gaelic or paint. With the family in 1972, she hiked Northern England's and Southern Scotland's 268 mile-long Pennine Way trail; and in 1990, she bicycled through Scotland with Bob. Throughout her time in the Upper Valley, Nancy was active in the Scottish Club of the Twin States (SCOTS) where she served in multiple board positions, including club president on numerous occasions in the 1980s and 1990s.

Nancy was a painter, first documenting her children's favorite toys, then focusing her artwork on the landscapes of Scotland and New England, depicted through watercolor and pen. When home in the US, she developed her artistic skills studying with New England artists Larry Howard and Aidron Duckworth. She traveled frequently to participate in painting workshops in New England as well as in France, Italy and Ireland. From 1987 until her final hospitalization, Nancy taught painting classes in her home studio where she formed deep friendships with her students.

In addition to her art, Nancy loved her gardens, reading, knitting, sewing, and making clothes for the family. In the 1960s, she took up downhill and later cross-country skiing. She bicycled on weekends with Bob and through Ireland with the family in 1979. Summers included hiking in the White Mountains of NH and on Mt. Desert Island, ME, and she loved Scottish country dancing.

Nancy is survived by her five children Margaret "Meg", (husband Jack Hurley), James, Elizabeth "Lili" (husband Heinrich Hermann), Martha, and Charles "Charlie" (wife Marina "Didi"), her brother Edwin "Pete" Hayes, Jr. (wife Brenda), her seven grandchildren Andrew Dean, Edie Berteaux, Lili Daiss, Sam Daiss, Charlie Dean II, Nicholas Dean, and Elliot Dean, and as well as her faithful dog Lad.

Condolences can be sent to Rand-Wilson Funeral Home, Hanover, NH. A memorial observance will be held on September 23rd at 2:00pm in Norwich's Congregational Church. Interment will be private, in Hillside Cemetery, Norwich.