“Keeping up With the Nashes”
For years, every Saturday morning between 7:00 and 7:30am, as I set up for the Palisades Farmers Market, I would see her walking along Oak Tree Road. Sometimes, she would walk with him and sometimes she would be alone. We always exchanged hellos and pleasantries, but one day, curious, I just had to ask, “Who are you?”
They are Mary and Harold Nash, 88 and 94 years respectively. Five years ago they moved from Harrington Park to the Esplanade and have since walked every nook and cranny of Palisades. Harold grew up on his family farm in Oregon and continued to work there while attending Oregon State University. Graduating with a double major in Chemistry and Agriculture, he went on to Purdue University to pursue a Ph.D. in Biochemistry. In 1944, he interrupted his studies to volunteer for the Navyʼs Officer Training Program, becoming a Personnel Officer in Guam for two years. Upon returning to Purdue in 1946, unbeknownst to him, his soon-to-be wife Mary had just arrived and was working in the lab across from his.
Mary Pratt, the youngest of six children, was from Kalamazoo, Michigan. She attended Kalamazoo College majoring in Chemistry and spent her summers doing research work at UpJohn Laboratories. After graduating, her previous boss at Upjohn moved to Purdue where Mary joined him in researching antibiotics.
Mary and Harold met each other in the hallways and soon ate lunch together. By the end of the year, they were married and began a new life in Indianapolis where Harold took a job at Pitman-Moore researching plants and fungi as prospective pharmaceuticals. Mary stayed at home with their two daughters and in 1954 became an active volunteer for the League of Women Voters.
In 1963, Harold took a job at a non-profit company in Minneapolis where he conducted various research projects; one aimed at making animal feed from plant waste. Mary moved first with their teen daughters Sharon (high school) and Janet (middle school) and was soon invited to join the state board of the League of Women Voters where she became immersed in financing public services, state taxes and education.
Harold had long been concerned with population issues. In 1971, he accepted a position at The Population Council in New York City developing new forms of contraception and the family moved to Harrington Park, New Jersey. By this time, Sharon graduated from Kalamazoo College and then attained a Masters degree from Wayne State University. Janet graduated from Lawrence College in Wisconsin before getting a Masters degree at Iowa State University.
The Population Council, started by John D. Rockefeller in 1952, is an international non-profit organization seeking to improve the well-being and reproductive health of current and future generations around the world. Haroldʼs first project was continuing the development of the copper IUD and subdermal implants that provide five years of contraception. Harold was a founding member of the International Committee for Contraception Research, comprised of a dozen scientists from all over the world who conduct clinical trials to test the safety, efficacy, and acceptability of Council developed products. Three to four times a year this group would meet to share their research and to discuss ways for these contraceptives to reach under-developed countries. For four decades, Harold and Mary attended meetings all over the world and developed relationships they still enjoy today. In New Jersey, Mary continued at the League and also joined the Educational Law Center in Newark, advocating for fair school funding and quality education for all children especially those at risk. She was active until 2007 (at 83 years old), when a blood clot on her spine changed everything.
Due to complications, she spent four months, in and out of the hospital, Helen Hayes and CareOne. Harold had “retired” from The Population Council in 2002, but he continued to work there part time, driving to and from Manhattan from Harrington Park (at 88 years old) and visited her everyday. Fresh out of rehab, they selected the Esplanade for their new home for a number of reasons, with one important one being the ability to walk in the community.
Always physically active, they incorporated walks and bike rides into their daily routine and they have enjoyed adventurous trips: cycling trips across Europe, backpacking across the American west, and cross-country skiing.
Traveling for business and pleasure, Mary has been around the world once and Harold, twice.Since their move to Palisades in 2008 they have enjoyed walking Palisades together, even though Mary at first used a walker. But now they walk separately. Harold begins with stretches and sit-ups while Mary likes to get up and go. “I used to walk farther and faster,” says Harold. “Now I walk shorter and slower!” Seven days a week, weather permitting, they time it to be back for breakfast.
I asked about the paintings that hung on every wall. “Harold painted them,” said Mary. “He paints almost every day.” Painting since graduate school, he paints from photographs of their trips; scenes from Guatemala, Kansas, Hong Kong, Chile, Idaho, and even one from Nyack hang in their apartment.
Mary enjoys reading and yoga and is very connected via the internet. I left them feeling incredibly inspired and in awe, not only for what each of them has accomplished but how they have lived, and are still living their lives… every day at 88 and 94 years old, together for 67 years. When you see them, make sure you say hello!