Nancy Meikle

NANCY ANN CARTER MEIKLE died on August 18, 2025 the age of 87 in Middletown, RI.

Mrs. Meikle was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on September 28, 1937, the daughter of Don K. and Mary E. Smiley Carter. She graduated from Oberlin College, Ohio in 1959 having taken her junior year at the University of Minnesota. In 1979 she received a M.Ed degree from Assumption College in Worcester, MA.

After graduating in 1959 Nancy came to Boston MA and was employed at R.H. Stearns department store as floor supervisor and and later as Supervisor of Systems and Procedures. In 1964 she worked at the Institute of Contemporary Art on Newbury Street as Administrative Assistant to the Director and double entry bookkeeper.

Nancy married widower James M. Meikle of Arlington and Bedford at the First Congregational Church Chapel in Westborough, Massachusetts on August 19, 1966. They lived on West Main Street with his four children for 16 years.Many community organizations saw the fruits of Nancy's labors including the Worcester Craft Center, the League of Women Voters and the Marlborough-Westboro Mental Health Advisory Board as well as the Unitarian-Universalist churches of Northboro and Westboro. She particularly enjoyed arranging adult education programs. Nancy and Jim were early members of the National Head Injury Foundation and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

In 1982 Nancy and Jim moved to Cambridge where Nancy continued to be active in the Theological Opportunities Program at Harvard Divinity School which planned a spring and fall lecture series with a feminist orientation. She presented several focus lectures for the group.

In 1992 Mrs. Meikle and her husband moved to Maine where they had bought land and built a home on West Cundys Point, Harpswell. Again Nancy was involved with adult education programing for the First Light Camera Club of greater Brunswick. She served as president for five years. Her camera was never far away and she loved sharing her photos with her family.

Nancy and Jim were avid amateur genealogists and enjoyed many research travels to former ancestors' locations including Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, New York and Connecticut, Massachusetts and England. Nancy's father's family went back to Rev. Thomas Carter, first ordained minister in Woburn, MA in 1642 and then back to Suffolk, England. In 1917 Nancy published a limited edition book of her Carter ancestors assisted by professional genealogist Rhonda R. McClure at the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Her Carter search was aided by dna testing. She served as councilor for the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston from 2005 to 2011.

Nancy eagerly embraced the Apple computer first buying a MAC SE in 1984. She used PAF and Reunion for genealogical data, iPhoto for photo management and Photoshop for photo enhancing as well as Quicken for financial recording.

Nancy and Jim moved to Yarmouth in 2005. In recent years she was involved in the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick and served on the Membership and Adult Education committees. She was a charter member of the Patient and Family Advisory Council and a corporator of MidCoast-Parkview Hospital.

Above all Nancy loved her family. She was known as "Granan" to her children and grandchildren.

Nancy was predeceased by her wonderful husband of 45 years, James M. Meikle, her brother James J. Carter, his son Matthew R. Carter, her step daughter Linda J. Meikle and her daughter Nancy J. Orlando. She leaves two sons and their families who sustained her and brought her so much joy throughout her life: her son James D. and his wife Carole of Newport, RI, her son David C. and his wife Carol of Pine Island, FL, also her son-in-law, Steven Orlando of Westborough, MA along with seven grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. She also leaves a niece Anne Marie Carter of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

A celebration of life service will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick Maine, 1 Middle Street on Saturday, October 4th at 12:00 Noon.

Instead of flowers contributions in Nancy's memory may be made to the Holbrook Community Foundation, 984 Cundy's Harbor Road, Harpswell, ME 04079 or the New England Historic Genealogical Society, 101 Newbury Street, Boston MA 02116-3007