Anne Marie Rabke

Anne Marie “Nancy” Rabke (née Tierney) died peacefully and unexpectedly Sunday November 30, following a weeklong celebration of her 80th birthday on Cape Cod with all of her children and grandchildren. The Cape held a special place in Nancy’s heart and life, with many formative and fun experiences at various life stages–from her honeymoon after marrying John Rabke in 1967, to summer camping in Truro in the 70s, then buying a house in North Eastham in 1979 (one she later learned to great delight that Edward Hopper had painted) that would become a place of many meaningful family moments–weddings, welcoming grandchildren, summer vacations, joy filled holiday gatherings, and eventually, her year-round home after retirement.

Nancy was born in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, to Marguerite (Peg) and William Tierney, and was sister to three brothers Raymond (Ray), James (Jim) and William (Bill). She went to St. Mary’s and then to nursing school. On the eve of her nursing board certification exam, she met her soulmate John Rabke at the Jersey Shore. After they married, they made the courageous and communitarian decision to enlist in the Peace Corps, where they spent two formative years in the Côte d’Ivoire, an experience that forever shaped their worlds, and broadened those of their three children as well. After the Peace Corps, the then family of four- soon to be five- settled in Montclair, New Jersey, where Nancy practiced nursing and then became the school nurse at Montclair Kimberley Academy, where all of the Rabke children were educated and where John Rabke also worked until his death in 2003. Nancy also earned her BS and Masters from Upsala College, while her children were in school, modeling career and family and exemplifying her lifelong love of learning. After many years at MKA, where she also led the peer leadership program and was actively involved in student mentoring, Nancy transitioned to Columbia High School (Maplewood, NJ) and was a school nurse and active mentor in the peer leadership programs until her retirement in 2007.

Nancy found much happiness in creative arts. Macrame plant hangers filled the house in the 1970s, elaborate stained glass lamps and windows followed, she sewed dresses for her daughters and knitted sweaters for her grandchildren; her NJ basement was home to a dark room for her photography, which continued through the decades and her lens shifted to the natural world when she settled full time on the Cape. There she joined a circle of wood carvers, and she resumed painting, which she had begun as a child with her father, and which then filled her creative spirit in later years.

Along with art, Nancy’s passion for reading was a lifelong commitment and source of joy. She loved the poetry of Mary Oliver, relished learning about the human and natural world through books, and for the last eight years of her life, was profoundly nourished by the daily ritual of reading out loud with her later in life love John Moore (Montclair, NJ).

Those who knew Nancy know that she had a particular fondness for turtles. This love began with scuba diving and swimming with sea turtles, and evolved into a devotion that would have her walking the beach at any hour, in any weather condition, to rescue cold-stunned sea turtles on Cape Cod Bay. Over the last 20 years, Nancy was involved in saving the lives of thousands of sea-turtles, and many of them, her favorite, the endangered Kemp's Ridley. As recently as mid-November she drove 15 more Ridleys to the New England Aquarium.

Nancy lived a life of service. From her time in the Peace Corps in the Côte d’Ivoire through organizing volunteer trainings for Amigos de Los Americas, doing volunteer work for the Peaceworks organization in Nicaragua right up into her last days volunteering at the Lily House (Welfleet, MA), she was committed to giving back to the world.

During the last week of her life, all of Nancy’s children and grandchildren gathered at her home to celebrate Thanksgiving and her 80th birthday. Nancy was steeped in the love of her family, and her grandchildren gathered together with her in the home where so many beautiful memories were made- family gatherings, weddings, fish fries, sunsets at Cooks Brook beach, bluefish blitzes on Race Point Beach, digging for clams on Billingsgate Island or for oysters on the jetties in Wellfleet, and, of course, morning doughnuts from the Hole in One.

Nancy will be dearly and forever missed, and her presence lives on in the lives of her friends and family as inspiration for a life of beauty, learning, family, travel, art, service and care for the natural–and human– worlds.

Nancy is survived by her brothers Raymond Tierney (Newport, RI) and James Tierney (Portsmouth, NH), daughter Christina Henry and her spouse Frederick Henry, Jr. (Princeton, NJ), daughter Jennifer Verani and her spouse André Verani (Atlanta, GA), son Carl Rabke and his spouse Erin Geesaman-Rabke (Salt Lake City, UT) and adored grandchildren Miguel, Lucas and Luzia Verani, Mesa John Rabke, and Eleanor and John Henry.

The family is so grateful for all of the love and friendships shared with Nancy. A celebration of Nancy’s life will be held on the Cape in the spring at the Chapel in The Pines.

For those interested and able, we welcome donations in her honor to:

Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary: https://www.massaudubon.org/places-to-explore/wildlife-sanctuaries/wellfleet-bay/support

The Lily House: https://www.thelilyhouse.org