Nancy Wygant-Mills

NANCY WYGANT-MILLS Nancy Wygant-Mills, 89, of Perrysburg, passed away December 20, 2019. Nancy was born on January 22nd to Walter F. and Grace A. (Shively) Wygant at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Toledo. She spent her early childhood in Perrysburg Township before moving into the then Village of Perrysburg. She graduated from Perrysburg High School and Miami University. While at Miami she was a member of the Alpha Chapter of Delta Zeta Sorority and Pi Omega Pi, a business education honorary. Her first teaching position was at Huron High School in Huron, Ohio, followed by a year at Bellevue High School and five years at Ottawa Hills High School. During these years, she also attended Case Western Reserve University and the University of Toledo where she received a Master’s of Education and an educational specialist degree in guidance and counseling. The following two years were spent as a counselor at Fairmont West High school in Kettering, Ohio. She returned to the University of Toledo to teach in the National Defense Education Act’s Guidance and Counseling Institutes. Once again, she left the area to pursue a doctorate in counseling psychology at Indiana University. During her years there, she was a teaching assistant as well as an administrative assistant in a study conducted between the British Isles and the U.S.A. After obtaining the doctorate, she joined the staff in the counseling center at Bowling Green State University where she remained for the next fourteen years. Not only was she a counselor, she taught graduate students in the College of Education, was a secretary of the faculty senate, a member of several faculty committees, and an acting assistant dean in the then new College of Health and Community Services. Her greatest joy at B.G.S.U. was helping undergraduates decide on a major course of study and solidifying career aspirations. As much as she liked her work, Nancy retired early and became the wife of Robert Mills who owned the local hardware store in Perrysburg. During their more than twenty seven years together, they travelled to the British Isles to play golf and to their winter home in Naples, Florida where they loved to play golf and fish. Research into her family’s history kept her busy at other times and she discovered that both she and her husband qualified to become members of “The First Families of Perrysburg”. Nancy was active in the Fort Industry Chapter of Daughters’ of the American Revolution: P.E.O., Chapter T (a philanthropic educational organization, and a life member of Valleywood Golf Club in Swanton. She also enjoyed the years spent at Lakeside Chautauqua on the Marblehead Peninsula near Port Clinton in her 1920’s little cottage. She was preceded in death by her beloved parents, husband Bob, and step-son Bill Mills. She is survived by her step-son Michael of Sergeantsville, N.J., three grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, numerous cousins, and many friends. There will be no visitation; however, a graveside service will be held Saturday, January 4, 2020 at 9:30 a.m. at Fort Meigs Union Cemetery. Arrangements have been entrusted to Witzler-Shank Funeral Home, Perrysburg (419-874-3133). If you choose donations to celebrate her life, please consider the Way Public Library in Perrysburg, the 577 Foundation of Perrysburg, or Hospice of Northwest Ohio.