PLAINFIELD, NH — Nancy Cummings Liston passed away suddenly and peacefully on September 27, 2019. Born in Hartford, CT, on December 6, 1950, the daughter of Eileen (Landers) and Herbert Cummings, Nancy moved to Vermont days after her birth. Though an only child, she grew up “on the hill” in Windsor with Paul, Jean Ann, Bebe, and James Belaski, whom she regarded as siblings. Nancy graduated from Windsor High School and then attended American University in Washington, D.C. Upon graduation, she worked as a legislative researcher for the U.S. House of Representatives and then returned to her hometown as an English teacher and librarian for Windsor High School before beginning her career at Cold Regions Research Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in Hanover, NH, where she worked from 1968 until 2010. As was the case numerous times in her life, she was a strong and empowered voice for women and served as the Equal Employment Officer at CRREL. One of her greatest accomplishments was overseeing the Library of Congress Cold Regions Bibliography Project and she retired as the Division Chief of Library Science and Knowledge Transfer Branch. Her job at CRREL instilled a love of travel as it afforded myriad opportunities to see the country and the world. During her career and in retirement, she visited six continents, all fifty states, and countless countries. If you named a country, chances were that she could tell you that she had been there.
Though deeply devoted to her career, she maintained a strong work-life balance and it was as a loyal friend, wife, mother and grandmother where she found her true calling. Nancy and Ronald Argyle Liston (1926-2010) married in August 1981 and started their family. They made sure that all three of their children were born in Vermont, including taking the dramatic steps of having their middle son, Robin, born in the parking lot of Gifford Memorial Hospital in Randolph.
She was completely selfless to the ones she loved and her greatest joy in life was spending time with friends and family. Always wholly invested in the lives of her children and later her grandchildren who adored their “Nana,” she would drop whatever she was doing whenever her family needed her. She found great happiness going on countless adventures with her family members and friends and she loved nothing more than taking her grandchildren to “Nana Camp” at her house. She was overjoyed when she recently found out that she had two new grandbabies on the way.
In retirement, she took on volunteer efforts with the Plainfield Library as a trustee and took numerous adult learning classes to fill her time between reading books for herself and her book club as well as writing her memoirs.
She is survived by her loving children Scott and (Whitney) Liston, Robin Liston and (Erin Mellow), Alexis Liston and (Joshua Hunnewell) and her four grandchildren, Graeme, Madeleine, and Liam Liston and Ada James Mellow Liston-all of whom she loved dearly. She is also survived by her stepchildren, Deborah Meyer (Chris), Thomas Liston (Mary Jo), John Liston (Cathy), Susan Liston (Tom), and Sally Hisler (Denny). She was predeceased by her stepson William “Billy” Liston and her husband Ronald “Scotty” Liston.
A celebration of life will be held at 2pm on October 13, 2019 at 241 Freeman Rd. Plainfield, NH. Please consider carpooling where possible. The family encourages everyone to join them to remember and say goodbye to Nancy. In honor of the joy that Christmas brought Nancy, her family would like contributions to be made to Old South Church – Christmas Giving Fund, where donations will be utilized to buy Christmas gifts for local children in need. Contributions may be mailed to Old South Church ℅ Candy Hingston P.O. Box 298, Windsor, VT 05089.