Nancy Ann Fengler

Nancy Ann Fengler née Torres

May 10, 1938 – May 17, 2025

Her ski patrol friends called her “Zelda Zoom.” Her Girl Scout campers knew her as “Clipper.” She was wife and mother, daughter and sister, niece, cousin, aunt, teacher, and friend.

Her green thumb, inherited from her Italian father, brightened spaces. Her adventurous spirit led her around the world – from touring the Vatican with her best friend’s Catholic-priest-brother to transiting the Andes in a plane so small, it could barely clear snow-capped Bolivian peaks.

She saw Iguazu Falls, Machu Picchu, and Lake Titicaca before visiting them was mainstream, and returned with woven treasures from the region to share with her 6th grade students – students for whom she and the team with which she taught led beach camping trips to Tijuana in the 1960s.

She guided ski mountaineering training expeditions. Her second date with future husband Wolfgang was a trek on skins to Dollar Lake in the San Bernardino mountains… for which she backpacked in shish kebabs to cook over a fire in a tent... in a blizzard. This early episode was a perfect metaphor for the remarkable fifty-seven-year marriage partnership to follow: times could be hard, but they would find a way through and laugh about the struggle later.

Sailing, hiking, and rock climbing were favorite hobbies, and she could swing a hammer with the best of them when she, her husband, and brother-in-law built the house in which she spent the bulk of her years.

She learned to sew skating dresses when her daughter took to the ice and washed soot out of overalls when her husband and son decided to construct and run a coal-fired live steamer.

She enjoyed art projects and was a voracious reader and researcher, never shy to share any tip she found to make life flow better. She was gifted, quietly extraordinary, and something of an enigma.

She passed peacefully on May 17, one week after her 87th birthday, with loving family at her side. She is survived by her husband, two children, their spouses, relatives, and friends who adore her and will miss beyond words her irreplaceable ability to listen with grace and gently make people feel heard, valued, and loved.

Her legacy will endure in all the lives hers touched.

A celebration of life will be held for Nancy on Sept. 7, 2025 beginning at 4:30 PM in the Wardroom aboard Battleship IOWA in San Pedro. Directions, parking information, and RSVP via this form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeQ7JfrnPNyrNsdOliHyFvwaccADvrKhafpfy_hGD6wiMjZwQ/viewform?usp=header

In lieu of sending flowers, plant some! She’d love that.