HANOVER, NH — Sylvia Allen Nelson of Brewster Road in Hanover, New Hampshire, passed away after a brief illness on August 9, 2019.
Sylvia was born on November 24, 1931, the beloved daughter of Professor Chauncey N. Allen and Kathryn Allen. She inherited from her parents and nurtured a deep-seated affection for the tight-knit Hanover community; and when she returned to live in her childhood home years later, she worked with singular dedication and abiding grace to promote the arts and heighten historical awareness in that community. Serving on numerous boards-Friends of Hopkins Center and of the Hood Museum, the Hanover Historical Society, the Children’s Literacy Fund, the Fleming Museum of the University of Vermont-she displayed a marked capacity for poised, insightful leadership that resulted in her election to leadership positions in many of these organizations. Withal, she worked devotedly in the trenches, regularly assisting a group of gravestone cleaners in the Dartmouth College Cemetery, faithfully manning the desk at Dartmouth’s Webster Cottage, sorting innumerable books at Five College Book Sales, and serving as scribe for her Hanover High School Class of 1949.
As one peer observed, “She was a beautiful young woman and that beauty persisted into adulthood.” Academically, socially, musically, athletically, she thrived at Hanover High School, at the White Church, and in the broader community. For at least one year she joined her mother in the soprano section of the Handel Society at Dartmouth College. She was an active participant in an expressive dance program at the church. An accomplished figure skater, she and a high school classmate were a featured pair at a Winter Carnival skating event in the 1940s.
Sylvia attended Vassar College, where she established enduring and warm relationships with her classmates and the greater Vassar community. She served on the Board of Trustees and participated regularly in fund-raising efforts. Most recently, she was responsible for writing personal thank-you notes to college classmates for their donations to the Class of 1953 fund.
Sylvia walked lightly on this earth, with grace and dignity, intelligence and compassion. She infused every detail of her life with care. Devoted to music, art, dance, and literature, she had a keen appreciation for beautiful things. Her knowledge of and appreciation for classical music was broad and deep. Her sweet soprano often quietly accompanied Vermont Public Radio. She eagerly attended her son Mark’s musical seminars, offering astute observations and pithy questions, and never failed to attend performances of his community bands and orchestra. An avid reader, she loved being the senior member of the “Three Generations Book Group” and looked forward to sharing her thoughts with her daughters and granddaughter. They, in turn, will treasure these exchanges.
Dauntingly fastidious, her precisely organized closets, drawers, and cupboards comprised a kind of artwork themselves. She smiled sweetly and indulgently at the woefully ineffective efforts of her offspring to emulate her. She could cast a wry look at her own efforts as well: for years, a small sticker of Charlie Brown uttering “Rats!” graced her bathroom mirror.
She had a soft, deft touch with grandchildren and Scottish terriers. She took quiet joy in her three grandchildren, and they in her. She remembered every birthday and anniversary of members of her extended family with a card or personal e-mail. She graciously and generously gave of herself, making each of us better for having known her in the process.
She is survived by her husband of 66 years, Harry, her three children, Mark, Suzanne and Kate, her son-in-law Peter Zimmermann, and her grandchildren, Andrew, Sally and Declan.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to your public library, historical society, or art museum in her honor.