Nancy F. Callander

1928 - 2021

Nancy F. Callander passed away Sunday, July 18, 2021, at the age of 92, with her daughters present. Nancy Jean Fleming Callander, born in Evanston, IL, spent her formative years in Fairmont, WV, at the confluence of the Monongahela and Tygart rivers. She excelled in reading, swimming, singing and science and enjoyed the company of a wealth of cousins from both her mother's and father's large families. Nancy met the first love of her life, Douglas S. Callander, while attending college at Ohio Wesleyan University, and they were inseparable for the following 57 years until his death in 2004. They wed soon after graduation, and the two girls, Lee and Natalie, came along a few years later. Led by the couple's love of the outdoors and literature, they moved in 1964 to Groton, MA, where "Scottie" opened his medical practice and Nancy began a six-year, one-semester-at-a-time marathon into Boston, to get her Masters of Library Science at then Simmons College. After graduating in 1970 and continuing to drive the girls to all kinds of lessons in the arts, to cook every dinner from scratch and stay politically active in the League of Women Voters, Nancy eventually was hired in June 1973 to become Medical Library Director at Emerson Hospital in Concord, MA, for more than 30 years, a position she resigned in her 70s only when Scottie became seriously ill. Nancy arrived at Concord Park Independent Assisted Living in December, 2008, and the following year there met the second love of her life, Richard Lowitt, Ph.D. Many happy years together ensued as they enjoyed each other's company, the village of West Concord and van trips sponsored by the Concord Council on Aging, until Richard's passing in 2018. Nancy moved to Life Care of Nashoba Valley a few months later. She enjoyed reading, movies, ice cream and anything milk chocolate with nuts, walks to the library and along any river, music of many genres, canoeing, swimming, dancing (she and Scotty were great dance partners), the city of Boston, cooking, "the world of ideas," and laughing with friends and family with her great sense of the absurd. Nancy is survived by her daughter Lee Doyle, her daughter and son-in-law Natalie Callander and David Murray, and five grandchildren, Jason, Danielle, Jonathan and Melissa (Wizzy) Murray, and Rosita Doyle. Contributions in her memory may be made to PBS/WGBH and to Massachusetts Audubon or the Nashua River Watershed. A memorial service will be held at a future date. Arrangements under the care of Badger Funeral Home, Littleton. To share a memory or offer a condolence visit: www.badgerfuneral.com.