Nancy Perkins Morrison

NANCY PERKINS MORRISON Loving wife, mother and grandmother, died in Toledo, Ohio from congestive heart failure on July 14, 2015. She passed away on the eve of a planned return to the idyllic home that she and her beloved husband of 61 years, John, had built in Neah-ta-wanta, the summer resort in northern Michigan that she so adored. She was 86. Nancy was born on September 26, 1928, the elder daughter of Kenneth and Margaret Rick (“Ricky”) Perkins of Wyomissing, PA. She and her younger sister, Carol Perkins (VanDusen), who survives her, thrived in their house on Reading Boulevard, where Nancy was a tomboy and then a student-athlete well before Title IX. Nancy left home to attend Dana Hall Academy in Wellesley, MA. She attended Smith College in Northampton, MA, from which she graduated in 1950, returning frequently for reunions and faithfully selling pecans for the Smith Club each holiday season. Her life’s trajectory changed forever when Ricky engineered an invitation for Nancy and Carol from the Morrisons, who were family friends, to join them in Neah-ta-wanta. Nancy fell for both Neah-ta-wanta and John, though he was the brother of her host. After just three dates over a year-long courtship, she accepted his marriage proposal, and they wed in October, 1953. She left her teaching position in Washington, D.C. and followed John to St. Paul, MN. There, sons Ken and Pete arrived; it was then on to Long Beach, CA, where daughter Margaret was born, and to Webster Groves, MO, where son Bob came into the world. In 1965, the family moved to Ottawa Hills, a suburb of Toledo, and settled in for good. Nancy was a devoted wife and mother. She nurtured, cheered, transported , directed, counseled, prodded, shopped for, picked up after, cooked for, bragged about and, most of all, provided unending support, encouragement and love for her husband, children and grandchildren. She was an athlete in her own right, employing a wicked backhand slice on the clay courts at Neah and the Toledo Tennis Club and carding a hole-in-one as a teenager in Wyomissing. When John started his own business in 1981 in the wake of Owens-Illinois’ buyout, she served as Treasurer of John Morrison Corp. for 15 years. Through it all, she practiced her legendary thriftiness, which will give her descendants years’ worth of conversational fodder, not to mention stores of saved items to sort through! Nancy threw herself into many organizations and activities, none more so than the Northwest Ohio chapter of the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities, for which she organized ACLD state conferences in Toledo in 1980 and 1990. She was a very proud member of Colonial Dames and the Junior League, and she and John were long-time active congregants at St. Michael’s in the Hills Episcopal Church in Ottawa Hills. Nancy was delighted by her children’s spouses: Susan (married to Ken), Kim (to Pete), Stan Sagan (to Margie) and Susan (to Bob). She was overjoyed by her eight grandchildren (in order, Ellie, Jack, Ben, Tommy, Abby, Nate, Alex and Peirce), though her gusto in recounting each grandchild’s accomplishments led each daughter-in-law to believe (mistakenly) that Nancy favored the children of the other daughters-in-law. One of Nancy’s great strengths was her ability to see the positive side of every situation. Her family will draw inspiration from that virtue as they mourn her passing. A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on July 26, 2015 at the West Bay Pavilion in Neah-ta-wanta, on the Old Mission Peninsula north of Traverse City, MI. Contributions in her memory may be made to the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy (www.gtrlc.org). Online condolences may be shared at walkerfuneralhomes.com.