Nancy Ann Herrick

Nancy Herrick
October 1, 1936 – March 17, 1916
 
A teacher affects eternity; (s)he can never tell where (her) his influence stops -  Henry Adams
Nancy was born to CJ (Charles Joseph) and Carolyn (Burgess) Mc Aleavy and grew up in Wausau, Wisconsin.  Her father was a county agricultural agent and head of the Wisconsin Valley Fair.  She attended her mother’s alma matter, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she was a journalism student.  While on a trip with friends to northern Wisconsin, she met her future husband, Willie (Clarence Willard), in Minocqua, his home town.  After Nancy graduated, they married, and while working for the local radio station to support her student husband who was finishing his UW, LaCrosse history degree, they also started a family with the arrival of their first son, Mike.  They then moved to South Dakota to live with her favorite aunt and school teacher, Helen, while Willie completed his masters degree in physical education.  Upon Willie’s graduation and wanting a fresh start, they sent applications to small school districts out west.  The young family headed to Colorado for Willie’s first interview, in La Junta, and after he was offered the job they never left.
Nancy was fiercely smart, deeply curious and lived a life of independent opinion.  When Mike started school, Nancy joined Willie as a teacher.  Both taught in the La Junta school district for over 30 years.  Willie was a high school social studies teacher, football, baseball and later in his career, swimming coach.  Nancy started as a junior high English teacher, but spent most of her career in the home economics department, teaching sewing and knitting.  Nancy was defined by being an educator and taught by the Benjamin Franklin quote, “Tell me and I forget.  Teach me and I remember.  Involve me and I learn.”
Their second son, Patrick, completed their family and continued her involvement with sporting events.  Nancy was an accomplished skier, but had early on realized that in order to spend time with “her boys,” she would have to be an avid sports fan.  As well as always being in the stands for her husband’s and sons’ sports, she regularly kept the score book for many junior high events, helped organize and run Tigershark swim meets, and later became a swimming official.  Family vacations were generally camping in the Colorado mountains, where they enjoyed four-wheeling and rafting, but when the boys would go hiking or fishing, Nancy would sit by the stream with her dogs and read one of her favorite novels.
After her retirement from teaching, Nancy volunteered in the gift shop at the La Junta Medical Center Hospital, was an avid bridge player, and a member of her teachers’ sorority, Delta Kappa Gamma.  She continued her enjoyment of sports, always cheering on her first team, the Packers, and the Broncos.  She loved to drink milk and martinis – although not together, watch all sports on television and read book after book after book.  Being a good Irish girl, she peacefully left this world in her sleep on St. Patrick’s Day, probably after watching hours of ESPN analysis of the upcoming NCAA basketball tournament that would include her favorite college team, Wisconsin.
She is survived by many friends, former students, her sons, Michael and Patrick, daughter-in-law, Jennifer, and grandchildren, Annabelle and Dominic.  In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made at Colorado East Bank to the Nancy Herrick Memorial Fund.  Proceeds will benefit the Hospital Auxiliary or the charity of the contributor’s choice. 
 Peacock-Larsen Funeral Home & Arkansas Valley Crematory is in charge of arrangements.

Friends are welcome to Nancy’s memorial service on Friday, April 15th at 1:00 p.m. at Peacock Memorial Chapel, 401 Raton Avenue, La Junta, CO  81050.