Nancy (Nan) Norseen, 82
Nancy (Nan) Wilson Norseen, age 82, of Bolton, Mass, passed away peacefully on Friday, June 21, 2024, after a long illness.
Born on Aug. 9, 1941, in Wilmington, Delaware, to Wilbur Henry Norseen and Anita Marie Wilson Norseen, Nan moved to Bolton after her father’s death in 1952. She started her farming career with Morgan horses at “Misty Meadows” and was a 1963 Wellesley College graduate with a degree in Zoology. She was a lifelong educator, and spent a number of years in the West, teaching children in elementary school in a small 4-room schoolhouse and herding cattle in the mountains of Idaho, moving to northern California and then Arizona, before returning to Bolton in the early 1980s. For the past 27 years, she has raised Shetland sheep on “Hythe Farms,” immediately adjacent to the farm where she grew up.
For over 30 years, Nan was deeply involved in the 4-H Club. In 2008, the Bolton Fair honored her for her unparalleled dedication to 4-H and the agricultural community and for freely giving her time, talents, and specialized knowledge. In 2020 Nan was featured in the Spring edition of the North American Shetland Sheep Breeders Association Quarterly Magazine. Her mission was to help the Shetland sheep through continued selective breeding and by sharing her knowledge among the agricultural community, and her most recent milestone was initiating and holding a Shetland Sheep Field Day, a free event for the community, at the Bolton Fairgrounds in April of 2024.
Nan had many talents. She played classical piano, wrote haiku, was a fantastic photographer and author, and was also an accomplished gardener. In the 1990s she owned her own landscape design business and was a finalist in a PBS “Victory Garden” contest where she and her family’s garden were featured on TV and in national magazines. In addition, the gardens were cataloged in the Smithsonian Institute collection of American Gardens under “Misty Meadows.”
Nan is survived by her sisters Hannah McClennen and Elizabeth Boritt, one niece, four nephews, many Wilson cousins, two Hooker step-brothers, and a large circle of friends, neighbors, and a community who loved her dearly.
A memorial celebration will be held later this summer.
Memorial donations may be sent to 4-H in Massachusetts – online at https://ag.umass.edu/mass4h, or USPS: UMass 4-H, 7 Midstate Drive, Suite 102, Auburn, MA 01501 – or to a charity of your choice.
Arrangements under the care of Concord Funeral Home, Concord, Mass. To share a memory or offer a condolence visit: www.concordfuneral.com