Nancy Frost Case Hurst
ROANOKE TIMES (VIRGINIA, USA), December 18, 2011: Nancy Frost (Case) Hurst Nancy Frost Case Hurst, 75, died Friday, December 9, 2011, of complications that developed from surgeries she had undergone over the past several years.
Nancy was born in Flushing, N.Y. on April 14, 1936, the daughter of Eleanor and Paul Case. She grew up in Connecticut, with summers spent at a family camp in the Adirondacks.
In about 1947 she moved with her mother and brother to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia to join her father who was working at Aramco. By the time she was 14, the lack of a high school in Dhahran sent her to board and study at the American Community School in Beirut, Lebanon.
After graduation there in 1953 she returned to the USA to attend Swarthmore College where she majored in Biology. At Swarthmore she also met and "recognized" Charles Hurst. The couple courted throughout their college career and married on June 12, 1957, two days after graduation. Nancy and Charles moved to State College, Pa., where they lived for about eight years while Charles completed his doctoral studies. They began to raise two children, and Nancy started on a Master's degree.
The family then moved to Longshop in 1965, because Charles had been hired to teach at Virginia Tech. The couple bought a small farm. It came complete with a farmhouse, built in 1905, which had been only marginally improved since it was built. Nancy and Charles spent a lot of time and effort over the years turning the farmstead into a very comfortable and nearly self-sustaining place to live, with modern conveniences and environmentally friendly farm and household practices.
Nancy's interest was in homemaking, child-rearing, critters and gardening. She excelled at all of these. She served as a confidant and role model for countless students at Virginia Tech and actively participated on the solar car racing team at Virginia Tech with Charles.
Nancy went back to Graduate School to earn her MS degree in Animal Behavior from Virginia Tech. Nancy served on the Montgomery-Floyd County Regional Library Board for 12 years, much of the time as chairperson. She was proud that during her terms they built libraries in three towns and purchased two bookmobiles.
She was the primary care giver for both her father and mother during their declining years. In addition, Nancy and Charles served together on the Longshop-McCoy Rescue Squad, where they both trained to the level of Cardiac Technician and cared for many community members.
In 2002, Nancy and Charles left their small farm in Longshop behind to move to Frazier Park, California to help raise their two grandchildren, who are now grown. Nancy is survived by her husband of 54 years, Charles Hurst; her son, Kenneth Hurst and his wife, Tracy; Ken's sons, Asa and Jeremy Hurst (and their mother Amy Chu); and step daughter, Cheyenne Alfino; her daughter, Gwendolyn (Wendy) Perrone and her husband, F. Ronald (Ron) Perrone; her brother Sherwood Case, his wife, Susan; and their sons, Ivan and Julian; her twin brothers-in-law, Gail Hurst, (with his wife Ruth, and their sons David and Derrick), and Wilbur Hurst, (with his wife Bette, and daughter Natalie).
The family will be holding private memorial services near their homes at a common day and time to be determined. In lieu of flowers or other mementos, the family asks that anyone wishing to honor Nancy's memory with a donation to please consider the Three Rivers Avian Center in Hinton, WV (website tracwv.org) or the local public library of their choice.
Published in Roanoke Times from December 17 to December 18, 2011
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/roanoke/obituary.aspx?n=nancy-frost-hurst-case&pid=155069126.