Riegsecker, Nancy Short (1935-2005)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2005 Sep 26 p. 8

Birth date: 1935 Apr 15

text of obituary:

NANCY RIEGSECKER

Nancy Short Riegsecker, 70, died Sept. 12, 2005. She was born April 15, 1935, at Archbold, Ohio, to Lucille and Jesse Short.

After years of parenting and community leadership, she returned to college to complete her undergraduate degree at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., and did graduate studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. She sang beautifully, thought theologically in the texts of great hymns and lived out of a daily celebration of spirituality that grew from her love of these texts. She was hospitable, compassionate, attentive to the needs of others, empathic with people who suffer, courageous, feisty and passionate about justice.

She served on the Messiah College board of trustees, the board of Ten Thousand Villages, on two corporate boards and various non-profit organizations. She traveled internationally in joint consultation services with her husband, Marlin, as a part of Mennonite Economic Development Associates. She addressed issues of social justice, development, financial responsibility in philanthropy and her particular interest in women in leadership. She sometimes referred to herself as a "radicalized feminist," seeking full gender parity from a perspective of authentic Christian justice.

She was baptized in her youth at Central Mennonite Church and was a longtime member of Zion Mennonite (both in Archbold, Ohio) and then of Seventh Street Mennonite and later of Upland Brethren in Christ Church, both in Upland. For the last 15 years she was a leader, congregational chair, mentor and counselor to fellow members of Peace Mennonite/Brethren in Christ Church, a home-based church in Claremont, Calif.

Survivors include her husband, Marlin; four children, Timothy, Laura Stephenson and her husband, Phil, Jeff and his wife, Michelle, and Joel and his wife, Cynthia; her mother, Lucille of Archbold, Ohio; three siblings, James of Archbold, Linda Short Rychener of Glendale, Ariz.; and Greg of Archbold; and seven grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by twin brothers, Terry and Larry, in 2000.