Nancy (Chester) Meng, age 79, of Salem, NH, passed away June 3, 2021, after a heroic battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Nancy Meng was born in November 1941 in Vancouver, WA and raised along with her eight siblings in Woodland, WA. She graduated from Woodland High School in 1960 where she was Vice President of the Student Council, played saxophone in the band and was honored as ‘Outstanding Girl’ for her graduating class. Nancy went on to earn a B.A. in Fine Arts from Catholic University in Washington D.C., an A.A. from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, NY, and a M.A. in Teaching from Boston University in Boston, MA. 

Nancy settled in Newton, MA in 1981 where she raised three children, was actively involved with her church, regularly volunteered at Boston’s Pine Street Inn and worked for the Patriot’s Trail Girl Scout Council of Boston. She later moved to Salem, NH to be closer to her grandchildren.

An avid patron of the arts and an artist herself, Nancy enjoyed attending the ballet, Huntington Theatre productions, and visiting the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Keenly observative and detail oriented, Nancy actively pursued black and white photography, was an impeccable seamstress with a great sense of style - making clothes and top-notch Halloween costumes for her kids, and later in life focused her efforts on watercolor painting. She enjoyed music of all kinds but in particular jazz vocalists and classic crooners such as Ella Fitzgerald, Eartha Kitt, and Johnny Mathis. Nancy was particularly fond of New England’s colorful foliage in autumn, a cold glass of chardonnay on a summer evening, spending time with family, and curling up with a good novel. She had a slightly goofy, self-deprecating sense of humor, strong spatial intelligence but a terrible sense of direction, a genuine belief in the goodness of people, was deeply empathetic and loved rooting for the underdog.

Nancy is survived by her loving partner of thirty years: Dick Spencer, her three children: John Meng of Rehoboth Beach, DE, Ann Hadwen of Sandown, NH, and Catherine Meng of Santa Fe, NM, her three grandchildren: Boden, Tucker, and Alice, and her siblings: Kay Chester, Lenna Mulka, Barbara Chester, Nora Chester, Jim Chester, and Margaret Stewart. She was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Nick Chester, and her sister Therese Chester.

A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at Saints Mary and Joseph Parish: St. Joseph Church, 40 Main St, Salem, NH 03079 in Salem, NH on Tuesday, June 8th at 10:00am.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in her name to Merrimack Valley Hospice: 360 Merrimack St, Lawrence, MA 01843.  Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Goundrey & Dewhirst Funeral Home, 42 Main Street, Salem, NH 03079.  Please visit www.goundreydewhirstfuneral.com to sign the online guest book.