S. Page Nelson, Jr.

Spotswood Page Nelson Jr. died on October 29, 2023 in Wilmington, DE. He was born in 1925 in Baltimore, MD, the son of Spotswood Page Nelson and Julie Forrest Nelson. His sister, Julie Nelson Williams, predeceased him.Never one to sit still, even in his last days, Page insisted that he had to get up because he had things to do.

A Baltimore native, Page was one of the few boys to attend Bryn Mawr School before moving on to McDonogh School. He attended Yale University for one year, where he excelled in golf, before enlisting in the Navy. When WWII ended, he graduated from Yale, returned to Baltimore, and began a 25-year career in banking. Starting at the Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust Company, he rose in leadership at Loyola Federal Savings and Loan, and ended his banking days at Robert Garrett and Sons.

For the rest of his life, Page fixed things that were old, made of wood and in trouble. He liked to say that he dealt in beauty and permanence.  Beginning as a hobby in the basement of the St. Paul’s Rectory, he founded Nelson & Co in 1976 in the carriage house of Baltimore’s Mt. Vernon Club.  When the fire marshall discovered what was going on, this forced a move.  In short order, Nelson & Co relocated to an old stone mill building along the Jones Falls.  Soon the two floors of the old factory were filled with wobbly chairs, broken armoires, and sideboards and clocks needing a fix or a new finish.  A dream of his – to recreate a set of painted chairs made to the standards of the 1810’s when Baltimore’s chairs were in high demand – was a signature achievement. His support helped launch careers for many of his staff, sometimes buying them a tool, paying for their schooling, or simply coaching them to “get your thumb out of your ass and figure it out.” He’d say, “Once you do a good job, you get another.” His formula worked: customers, and their children and grandchildren, have returned year after year with their broken furniture.

He would tell you that his best decision was marrying Anne Canby.  Across 46 years of marriage, he matched her energy and smarts, step for step, determined to keep up, even when groaning at the sight of too many plants in the truck bed that needed holes.  Their playful bond inspired us all.

To his children, nothing seemed out of reach.  He would stay up all night to help finish a school project. He carved and painted his own decoys. He made extravagant breakfasts and even better desserts.  He painted eyeballs on row boats, matching the ones he’d seen on fishing boats in Portugal.  For major events, he’d make a “surgical strike,” visiting for no more than 24 hours.  He loved nothing more than a good run to the dump.

Page had a lifelong love for the waterfront, from his boyhood summering on Gibson Island, to creating a hunting retreat on Philpots Island in the Chesapeake Bay, sailing and fishing in Nantucket, and building his dream home on the Manokin River in Princess Anne, Maryland.  A surf-casting rod was always at hand.  Over time, a succession of boats gave way to tractors.  For Page, toys and tools were often the same thing.

He read voraciously and remembered every detail.  On his bedside table, Garrison Keillor’s poetry collection kept close company with Lee Childs and Isaac Asimov. For graduations, he gave his children and grandchildren the OED and the Oxford Book of English Verse. A friend tells the story of Page bringing fresh picked white peaches and vanilla ice cream to share, while recounting detailed facts – with maps – on the Mississippi River watershed. Nothing was too quirky for his curiosity.

Many claimed Page as their second father. Generous, funny, and “wicked smart,” he delighted in the small things: making Granddaddy pancakes for breakfast, bringing his homemade applesauce to a friend, or making candlesticks from wood scraps and giving them away. He would never hesitate to tell you that you were simply marvelous.

Page held to rituals: a resounding “Good morning” required an equal response. He opened doors, helped his ladies with their coats, and pulled out Anne’s chair to seat her at dinner every night. He also loved to break the rules. He would punctuate a pause with a dirty limerick or silly doggerel. He mixed class with sass.

Page is survived by his wife, Anne Canby of Wilmington, DE; his children Holly Ghazey (Northampton, MA), Lili Brown (Portland, ME), and Page Nelson (North Bend, WA), his two “favorite” sons-in-laws, Robert Ghazey and Stanford Brown; his sister-in-law Alicia Smith; his niece, Julia Williams Boyd, and nephew Edward Monroe Williams; his four grand-children and seven great grand-children, and his former wife, Julie Reiner Woods.  In lieu of flowers, contributions in Page’s memory to either the Nantucket Conservation Foundation or the Chesapeake Bay Foundation are welcome.

A celebration of his life for family and friends will be held in Wilmington, DE in Spring 2024.