Published in the July 14, 2017 edition
MELROSE — Nancy Bingham Leverich, of Melrose, Massachusetts, died at the Bear Hill Nursing Home, in Stoneham, on July 6, 2017.
She was predeceased in 2002 by her beloved life partner of 46 years, Jerry Barbara Jackson. She is survived by her beloved brother and sister-in-law, Bingham B. Leverich and Luize E. Zubrow of McLean, Virginia. Also surviving her are her dear nephew, Peter Henry Leverich, and niece Alexandra Gonzalez, as well as six grandnieces. She also leaves these especially cherished friends: Beverly Allen of Middleton, Massachusetts; Linda Ramey of Farmington, New Hampshire; Kate Lingren of Edgartown, Massachusetts; Diane Fischler and Marsha Grant, both of San Rafael, California; Virginia Hall and Rudie Lingren of Orange City, Florida.
Nancy was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1934, and was the daughter of Henry Priestley Leverich, an American Foreign Service officer in the embassy there, and Katharine Bingham Leverich, originally of West Newton. The family remained in Berlin for five years but returned home each year to Scarborough Beach, Maine, where Nancy’s grandfather gathered his children and grandchildren every summer. Nancy’s childhood summers there, surrounded by aunts, uncles and cousins, bred in her a deep, abiding love of family, and of ocean and beach, which remained sustaining forces throughout her lifetime.
During the World War II years of 1939-1943, Nancy, her brother, and mother, lived in West Newton next door to her much-loved grandparents. Her father, however, remained posted in Europe all those four years, a very difficult separation for a child who remembered and adored her father. In 1943, the family was reunited and moved to Washington, D.C., where her father was posted in the State Department. That was their home, except for 1947–1948, when they lived in Bucharest, Romania, her father’s last foreign posting.
Later, Nancy was a graduate of Kent Place School, Smith College, and the Radcliffe-Harvard Master of Arts in Teaching Program. She taught drama, literature, composition, and creative writing for over 40 years, three at the Brimmer-May School, where she met Jerry; 12 at the Winsor School, the last four of those as English Department chairperson; and 27 at Woburn High School.
Nancy and Jerry lived together during all these years, in Cambridge, Peabody and Melrose. Nancy was also a devoted alumna of Camp Wohelo on Sebago Lake in Maine. She spent ten summers there, as camper and then counselor, and experienced there the joy of nature, the joy of dance and the joy of friendships that grew and deepened in that beautiful setting. She considered Wohelo to be one of the most profound spiritual influences in her life. When Nancy and Jerry bought their own summer home on Mousam Lake in Maine, one reason they loved it was that it reminded them both of Wohelo, where Jerry had also spent one summer.
Their burial place is in Maple Grove Cemetery in Acton, Maine, just a few miles from the lake and their cottage, where so many happy summers were spent together. Donations may be made in Nancy’s memory to: Wohelo Scholarships, c/o The Luther-Gulick Camps, 25 Gulick Road, Raymond, ME 04071. Services are private. For online tribute, visit RobinsonFuneralHome.com.
