Nancy Elliott Sydnam

Jan 20, 1929 -

Nov 18, 2021

Nancy Sydnam died in Anchorage, Alaska, on Nov. 18, 2021. She was born in Bellingham, Wash., on Jan. 20, 1929, to E. Jackson and Winnie Elliott. She grew up on the family's 60-acre farm in Lynden, Wash., with her older sister Jane and younger sister Ann. Her father very much wanted a son, but when that didn't pan out, Nancy quite eagerly became a tomboy in his stead. She competed in plowing matches with her father's Belgian draft horses as a teenager. Nancy idolized Amelia Earhart, who inspired her to become an accomplished pilot with her Supercub and Cessna 185 in her adult life. She attended the University of Washington, was a member of the sorority Delta Delta Delta and graduated in 1950. Nancy continued her postgraduate education and earned her Doctorate in 1954 from Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, which is now known as Drexel University. She often told a story of how people said medical school must have been easy for her, but she attested that it was not. Nancy nearly quit several times and was placed on academic probation, but she stuck with it and succeeded, exemplifying the value of perseverance. Nancy married H.J. "Syd" Sydnam during her last year in med school in June 1953. Nancy interned at Virginia Mason in Seattle, Wash., for a year and then moved to Anchorage in 1955. There, Nancy joined Syd who was working for Pacific Northern Airlines and had just bought them a home on Sand Lake. Nancy began her family practice in a white house at 4th Avenue and L Street that still stands there today, if her son's memory doesn't deceive him. Nancy had four children with Syd, but they divorced in 1974. Nancy loved being in Alaska and once stated that she was wooed into marriage by the expanse of greatness that Syd had made home, most especially the berry picking! She had a successful family practice that she ran with Dr. Claire Renn for many years until she semi-retired in 1988, after becoming fed up with the ever increasing role that insurance companies had in dictating patient care. She retired from her practice, but went to work for The Aleut Corporation, working in clinics at the Pribilofs and on the Aleutian Chain. She loved working in these remote places of Alaska with its tough, yet endearing people. Nancy was so much inspired by these experiences, that she wrote a book entitled Sideways Rain about her adventures there with her cello and last of many Labradors, Vita, accompanying her. Nancy was a member of the Anchorage Civic Orchestra and was active with support of Sitka Summer Music Festival. She was a member of St. Mary's Episcopal Church since the 1950s, she bullied her way into an advanced poetry class at UAA in later years, she avidly hunted ducks most of her life and she had at least one Labrador that was a AKC Master Hunter during her years training and running dogs in local retriever clubs. Nancy was an accomplished woodworker, winning prizes at Fur Rendezvous, she was an avid pilot that flew joyfully in a land that she loved for many years. Nancy was many things and accomplished more than can be surmised here, but the biggest thing she did was treat life and the people she encountered in it with respect, curiosity and love always. In her senior years, as memory faded from her mind, there was still no loss of those guiding principles of her life, on each day she could often be heard exclaiming about the beauty of the day: "What a gift! What a great day to be alive!"

Nancy was predeceased by daughter, Claire Ann Sydnam. She is survived by sons, Elliott K., R. Bruce and Ben A. Sydnam; and cherished goddaughter, Elizabeth (Temple) Smith; as well as grandchildren, Storm, Cornelius, Allison, Jackson and Everly.

Family and friends will gather for a service at St. Mary's Episcopal Church at 4 p.m., on Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022, with reception to follow at Waldron Hall.