Nancy Tatnall Fuller

Nancy Tatnall Fuller, 99, of West Grove, Pennsylvania passed peacefully on June 28, 2023.  Born in Wilmington, Delaware during the Roaring 20s. Nancy attended Tatnall School, taught by her grandmother, Francis Dorr Swift Tatnall. Nancy lived through the Depression and World War II. She married the love of her life, Jack Glendon Fuller Jr. whom she met while studying at Dickinson College. They were married in May 1945 while Jack was on a short leave from his WWII service –  Nancy passed her finals on their honeymoon.  They shared 75 years of love, companionship, and adventure until Jack’s passing.

Nancy worked her way through college as a librarian and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She was a lifelong learner who instilled these qualities in others around her. An atlas, encyclopedia, and a dictionary were never far from the kitchen table. She was a voracious reader with a passion for history, and an accomplished genealogist who authored a number of books on family history that have inspired and been cited by others.

Starting out with little means, when Jack and Nancy moved their young family to Southern California, Nancy had to choose whether to have a horse or a car. She chose the horse, Bill, and would hoist two kids up, one in front and one in back, and ride to the convenience store, dismount, and tie Bill to a parking meter.  Despite being an east coast girl, Nancy rose to the challenge of Western life and ran the family farm when Jack was traveling for work. In addition to being a compassionate mother for her own and the neighbors’ children, she took care of two horses, rabbits, pheasants, ducks, a flock of 10-30 free-range chickens and helped wrangle the neighbor’s beef cattle.

In the summer of 1961, Jack was working on the east coast so Nancy loaded all five kids and Beauregard the dog into the family station wagon and drove route 66 from Southern California to Chicago, then on to Maine to spend the summer, so that we could be with Dad on the weekends.  The next year, in February of 1962, Nancy drove us across the country for the third time in 9 months to move the family to Connecticut, arriving in our new state just as John Glenn was splashing down.

At home, Nancy sewed, mended, painted walls, built, and designed everything.  She always had ideas for how things could be made better, and marshaled crews to make it happen.  Jack’s father, the Colonel, said that in not recruiting Nancy “the army lost the best top sergeant it could have ever had.” As the treasurer and accountant for Jack Fuller’s company, Polymer Machinery Corporation, Nancy was a balancing ace, but she was much more than that. She was the events organizer and second mother to employees and their spouses, creating enduring friendships.

Together Nancy and Jack took on many adventures. From camping with a dog and five kids, three in cloth diapers, in California, to sailing a 40-foot ketch in Long Island Sound, to summers in Maine, to living for the winter on an off-island in the Caribbean. Everywhere they went they created lifelong, loving friendships. Nancy opened her heart and home to all.  Nancy made occasions happen and gathered family and friends with open arms to events that became traditions. People lingered long around her dinner table for stories and conversation.  Nancy was interested in and talked with everyone, welcoming all.  If we were having baked potatoes for dinner, there was always an extra one in the oven in case someone brought a friend home.  For many of those friends we children brought home from college or later life, Nancy was an inspiration and a role model.  She also sent us off on our own adventures with encouragement and love, standing at the end of the dock or in the driveway waving her arms in big arcs over her head.

Nancy led by example.  She was always positive and giving. If you asked her how she was, the answer was always “fine” no matter how bad, and she believed it.  One of her favorite sayings was, “An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.”  (G. K. Chesterton)

Nancy is survived by five children, seven grandchildren, and many relatives and friends whose lives were blessed by knowing her.  Safe Passage Mom.  Reach home safe with Dad.

A celebration of life will be held at a future date to be determined.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in honor of Nancy Tatnall Fuller to the charity of your choice.