Remembering Newtown Friend Nancy Strong
Nancy Strong’s Memorial Meeting for Worship was held at
Newtown Friends Meeting on Saturday, March 16; her obituary is below:
Nancy Strong
Early on, Nancy Strong sensed the futility of war and the oneness of humankind. This conviction, and the living example of Mohandas Gandhi, became the core of her lifelong work in peace and social justice.
Nancy was born in Detroit, Michigan on April 16, 1931, to parents Paul and Marge Gruner. She completed her undergraduate studies in political science (BS) and education (BA) at Bowling Green University. In 1963 she received a Master’s Degree in International Development from Columbia University.
Nancy worked for 3 years at the United Nations in New York before leaving with her husband William to serve in Latin America in a Church World Service program of food distribution and family planning. Returning to New York, Nancy was challenged and nourished by an interracial Quaker faith group and by a dynamic women’s peace group which she served as newsletter editor and president. In Boston during the Vietnam years, she was active in anti-war work and in fair housing, where she was a tester in the first such case before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
On moving to Newtown, Pennsylvania in 1972, Nancy worked for 6 years at George School as Director of Alumni Affairs and Publications. In 1980, concerned about the rapid weapons buildup, Nancy left to work with the Freeze movement. She became the prime mover in WILPF-inspired protests at nearby Thiokol Corporation and spearheaded a shareholders resolution challenging that company’s production of the MX missile. She organized the founding meeting of the Bucks Alliance for Nuclear Disarmament, precursor to the Bucks County Peace Center. During the 90s, Nancy resumed paid work full-time as Office Manager for the Bucks County Housing Group, serving homeless families.
Her civic work included roles (board membership, committees, publications, workcamps) at the Peace Center, Pendle Hill, Newtown, and Princeton Friends Meetings, AFSC, Habitat for Humanity, WILPF, Pennswood Village, State Freeze Board, Massachusetts Fair Housing, Voice of Women, Coalition for Peace Action, NIOT, among others.
In addition to 3 years in Peru, Costa Rica, and Chile, Nancy spent time in Mexico (workcamp co-director), Nicaragua (picked cotton), France (Larzac community), and China (UN Women’s Forum 1995).
Nancy died in Pennswood Village on January 10, 2024, after 66 years of marriage to Bill Strong. Her daughter Laura lives in Princeton, son Tom in Spain, and sister Barbara in Michigan.