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Nancy Jean (Wilson) Hirsig August 18, 1939 - November 16, 2022 Nancy Jean (Wilson) Hirsig passed away peacefully at the Waverly Heights retirement community in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania on November 16, at the age of 83, in the presence of her two daughters. Nancy was pre-deceased by her husband of 61 years, Alan in 2021. She is survived by daughters Andrea and Carolyn, granddaughter Aya, and three older siblings (Alan Wilson, Judy Elzinga, and Neil Wilson). Nancy was born in Whitehall, Montana in 1939, the youngest of four children born to Earnest Wilson and Rebecca (Carey) Wilson. Both parents had been schoolteachers, until the exigencies of the Depression led to Earnest’s decade-long stint as a dairy farmer, as he was when Nancy was born. The family moved frequently throughout Montana and Wisconsin, settling in Beloit, Wisconsin when Nancy was 12. Nancy graduated from Beloit Memorial High School in 1957, where she met and was wooed by her future husband, Alan Robert Hirsig. Class valedictorian, he also played her suitor in the senior class play, “Lady Precious Stream.” Alan and Nancy were married on August 23, 1960. Nancy was older than Alan by two months; at the time of their marriage she had just turned 21, while he was still a youngster by comparison. Those two months of life experience she had over Alan was a handy card for Nancy to play when needed. Nancy was a lifelong appreciator and supporter of the arts. She loved beauty and surrounding herself with lovely things and environments, from works of art to flower gardens. A weaver in her earlier years, she had an acute sensitivity to, and appreciation for, color. She hugely enjoyed the performing arts, and had a passion for supporting both new and established theater groups in Philadelphia, including Philadelphia’s Fringe Arts, Play on Philly, Pig Iron Theatre Company, and the Arden Theater Company. Nancy served as a board member of the Arden for many years, where a rehearsal hall with a spring dance floor was named after her; appropriate as she had loved folk dancing in her younger years. Nancy and Alan were also avid supporters of The Curtis Institute of Music, providing an endowment for the Hirsig Family Chair in Vocal Studies, as well an endowed fellowship in piano, and annual fellowships for vocal students. Nancy also served on the board of The Nepal Foundation, a non-profit established to undertake projects in that country, where she had travelled several times and with which she had a deep connection. Having a soft spot for children, Nancy found great joy in supporting programs geared toward them. She loved the Arden’s youth programs. The Haverford YMCA’s childcare center was made possible through contributions made by Nancy and Alan. They also endowed the creation of the Rosenbach Museum’s Hirsig Family Chair of Education position, which specifically allowed the Rosenbach to begin partnership programs with Philadelphia schools. Nancy was a vivid character who lacked pretense. Her passionate nature, loyalty, generosity, straightforwardness, flair for the dramatic, and unusual sense of time will be remembered by all who knew her. She was a person of whom it could truly be said, she stirred things up and left the world a more beautiful place than she found it.

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Nancy Hirsig

August 18, 1939 - November 16, 2022