Nancy Bixler Isaacs

Nancy Bixler Isaacs of Jaffrey, New Hampshire, died on December 4th, 2015, unexpectedly but quickly while exercising and living her life as she always did: with vigor and purpose.

Born January 20, 1930, Nancy began and lived most of her life in Massachusetts. She was the fourth daughter of Mary Thayer and Julius Seelye Bixler, noted educator and president of Colby College (1942-1960).

Nancy, a graduate of Swarthmore College, Yale, and Simmons, lived an adventurous life as a young woman, teaching English in Istambul and Newton, Massachusetts before taking a career break to raise four children with her devoted husband, Sanford Michael Isaacs. With Sandy, she found personal happiness and a way to enact a commitment to social justice through joining the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), participating in Hospice and other programs to help those who needed it, such as Vietnam soldiers who had lost their way.

In her thirties, Nancy became a librarian, first at Lasell Junior College in Newton, MA, and finally as the library director at Lesley College in Cambridge, MA. Retirement to Jaffrey, NH in 1995 brought a rich 20 year period with Sandy, with visits from grandchildren, a series of poodles, a breathtaking view of Mt. Monadnock, driving for the American Red Cross, being an active member of the Monadnock Quaker meeting, and most recently, a new vocation as a Bridge player, for which she had just achieved junior master.

Nancy is remembered for her love for her family, her patience, her focus on the positive, her compassion, her dry wit, and her unimpeachable integrity. Deeply missed and mourned, her family is grateful for her long, full life, and a dignified death without pain or prolonged lingering.

She leaves her husband Sandy, her four children and their spouses (Julia Bixler Isaacs and her husband, Charles Schobert; Daniel Bixler Isaacs and his wife, Sarah; Beata Isaacs Randall and her husband, John; and Emily James Isaacs, and her husband Paul Modiano), eight grandchildren (Nicole Hicks; Matthew and Kira Isaacs; Daniel and Katrina Randall; and Jamie, Joshy and Toby Modiano), and one great-grandchild, Kayden Osilesi.

Nancy’s memorial meeting has been moved from the Quaker Meeting House to the First Church in Jaffrey Center, with the time and date remaining Saturday January 2 at 1 pm.

Immediately afterward there will be a reception in the adjoining Parish Hall for about an hour. Following this, friends are invited to the family home at 39 Bixler Way in Jaffrey.