In Memoriam

Nancy Chase Lyon '68
One of her rules was "show people you care"

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The call would often come between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. The New Hampshire Department of Fish and Game needed Nancy Lyon and her team on stand-by for help in a possible search and rescue.

Nancy would get out of bed, turn on the lights and computer, and start printing out topographical maps of the area to be searched. She would call other volunteers from New England K-9 Search & Rescue.

If she got the call that her team was needed, she would load the dogs on the van (license plate "SNIFF"), and make her way to the scene. She would search in the dark, in the rain, over the most difficult terrain of thickets and hummocks. She and her team helped find lost children, elders who had wandered from home, missing hunters and hikers.

Nancy Chase Lyon '68 died in October, just weeks after being diagnosed with cancer. She was 64.

"She had a philosophy of being in the world that incorporated a few rules," said her husband of 45 years, Douglas Lyon. "One of the rules was 'always do the right thing.' The second rule was 'if you're going to do it, do it at 100 percent.' And the third rule was 'show people you care.' "

The Lyons met as philosophy majors at UNH. Both were active in political causes and student organizations. Both were Ford Foundation teaching fellows. They were drawn together, Douglas Lyon said, by "shared values."

Nancy Lyon's family has a strong UNH connection—her father, Jere Chase, held many positions at the University, including Executive Vice-president and interim President. The Jere A. Chase Ocean Engineering Building is named for him, as are the Jere Chase Service Award and Jere A. Chase scholarships. John S. Elliott '15, for whom the Elliott Alumni Center is named, was her uncle.

After college, Nancy became a jewelry maker. She switched eventually to weaving. She was innovative—establishing new techniques for "crackle weaving"—and Nancy Lyon Hand Weaving employed nearly a dozen people and sold products nationwide.

Douglas Lyon describes his wife as a "Reniassance woman...She had a theory that you had to change careers every 20 years to sort of keep fresh."

Not long after the Lyons moved from Goffstown to New London, Nancy decided to devote her energies to training search and rescue dogs (including Haven and Quicklie, pictured).

"We created a studio in the house...and about six months after we got here, she announced she was done with the weaving," Doug Lyon remembers. "She was going to do the dog training. Within a month, the whole studio was converted to the dog training."

Nancy also served on various organizations and boards—she was president of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen in the 1970s and in recent years was active in the Ausbon-Sargent Land Preservation Trust.

"I used to say to people," Doug Lyon said, "that Nancy does not idle well."

In 20 years of working on search and rescue, she never missed a call. Major Kevin Jordan of New Hampshire Fish & Game called Nancy and her team not "volunteers" but "unpaid professionals."

"Our guys will tell you that they miss her as a friend, and we miss her on these searches," Jordan said.

In the wee hours at a command post, Nancy's good humor and professionalism could give a tired and frustrated team an infusion of energy and hope, he said.

"Those are the moments that every field lieutenant will tell you that they treasure the most about her," Jordan added.

He said that Nancy never—ever—wanted the limelight.

"She chose to prove her capabilities with results on the ground. She didn't come in with a power point telling you how wonderful her dogs were. She showed you how wonderful her dogs were, and then she modestly loaded those dogs up and left."


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