Glastonbury native Nancy Roser Bestor died in a nursing home in Concord, Massachusetts, on February 26, 2024.

Born on March 19, 1927 to John H. Roser and Gertrude Bogardus Roser, she grew up in a town shaped by immigrants, principally from Southern and Eastern Europe, who powered fruit and dairy farms in the hills, tobacco farms in the lowlands, and local industries, including the Herman Roser and Sons Pigskin Tannery founded by her immigrant grandfather from Germany. Her life was shaped by this milieu and by her educational experiences. She attended the Hubbard Street Elementary School, where the students were grouped in two classrooms, and she and her sisters remembered how stimulating they found it to follow the curriculum for the older students in each room. She then went to Drew Seminary, a Methodist boarding school for girls in Carmel, New York, where she acquired an excellent knowledge of the Bible and an aversion to all forms of dogmatism. Pronounced a "Lady of Liberal Learning" on her graduation, she went on to study at Mount Holyoke College, which she experienced as a true awakening.

During World War II the college hosted gatherings for refugee intellectuals from across Europe who had formerly participated in summer conversations at the Cistercian Abbey of Pontigny, France. Several members of this group joined the college faculty, including the philosopher Rachel Bespaloff, whom Nancy especially admired. She wrote her honors thesis in French, which she discussed with Bespaloff, on the essays written by the reporter, writer, and editor Charles Péguy advocating for justice for Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery officer falsely accused of treason, convicted (in 1894), and sent into exile. Péguy elevated the cause into an ideal ethic of civic engagement founded on civic charity for one's fellow citizens, respect for all forms of labor, and devotion to the pursuit of truth and justice in opposition to the going politics of political expediency and pursuit of wealth for its own sake. Nancy internalized Péguy's belief that these values were essential to preserving individual and collective freedom. Her research raised her awareness of the dangers of taking democracy for granted and the importance of making excellent public education available to everyone.

In 1949 Nancy married Roger Scott Bestor of Bloomfield, Connecticut, and moved to a house built by him on Hebron Avenue surrounded by fruit farms and located above Longo's Dairy farm with a view over the Connecticut River Valley. They joined the Buckingham Congregational Church, which had a lively mix of parishioners, including of Pre-Reformation Protestant heritage from northern Italy. In this friendly neighborhood they raised six children in unusual freedom and without a TV until Roger's early death. To support her family she taught two generations of Glastonbury children French and Spanish and added a Master's degree in Spanish literature to her Master's in French from Trinity College. She eventually received a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Connecticut, but her attainments never lessoned her sympathy for all who face the challenges of working while single parenting and attending to the needs of elderly parents.

Throughout her life she supported efforts to strengthen the Glastonbury schools, advocated for the busing of inner-city children to the town, encouraged the efforts of girls without means to attend college, joined the League of Women Voters, and found ways to connect with people across all walks of life. After retiring she traveled to Nicaragua, Eastern Europe, South Africa, Vietnam and Cambodia, and elsewhere to learn how people in these countries had experienced tumultuous political and social changes and the impacts of U.S. policies in the past and present.

Predeceased by her husband, her sons John Roser Bestor and Andrew Scott Bestor, and her sister, Rachel Mather, Nancy is survived by her sister Karin Williams, of Sausalito, California; by four daughters – Susannah Walker of Alamo, California; Jane Fair Bestor, of Somerville, Massachusetts; Clary Bestor Williams, of Concord, Massachusetts; and Maria (Roo) Zimmer, of Albuquerque, New Mexico; and their husbands Stephen J. Walker, Michael Adrian Williams, William Dean Zimmer, and Mark M. Howland, former husband of Jane and family friend; thirteen grandchildren, who remember listening raptly to their grandmother translating Asterix and Tin Tin to them from French; and numerous cherished great grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at Buckingham Church on May 4th at 2 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Welles-Turner Memorial Library .

Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord, MA.