Nancy Burtch Hauk

Growing up in the St. Louis suburbs with her parents Bud and Helen and sister Polly, she attended Tillman Elementary School, Nipher Middle School and Kirkwood High School. Her father had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in World War II. Her mother helped develop a love of art in her.

Her appreciation for beauty grew while earning a degree in art history at Connecticut College. A New York dealer offered her a Giorgio Morandi still life on a three-year payment plan a student might be able to afford. She always regretted she didn’t take him up on it.

In the late 1960s, now married to Steve Hauk, she came to Pacific Grove and took a job in Monterey at CTB/McGraw-Hill. There she assisted the late Dr. Ross Green in breaking down biases in standard school tests.

Passionate about the importance of this work – she had two children of her own, Amy and Anne – she traveled the country visiting suburban and inner city school districts to ensure students were tested fairly.

While this was part of her job description, she often went the extra mile. Once she voluntarily took the subway alone to view testing at a Brooklyn Catholic school despite warnings subway violence had escalated. In this case, work and art came together – one of the school’s nuns, taking drawing classes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, safely escorted Nancy back to her hotel that night.

Back home, over the years she served on the Pacific Grove architectural review board and planning commission and was instrumental in limiting the number of fast food franchises in the city. She also served as a member of the Pacific Grove Public Library board as well as on several committees.

In 1975 she was a founding member of the Heritage Society of Pacific Grove.

When she found time she studied watercolor with artists such as Sam Colburn, Jann Pollard, Don Nice and Gregory Kondos, and painted with friends, especially Marty Clarke.

She painted marines and landscapes, missions and adobes, figures and faces and was known for observing a scene for a length of time then painting quickly. She enjoyed painting in France and took French lessons to better understand the culture. But she kept the work quietly to herself; some of her friends who weren’t artists didn’t know she painted.

She continued her art after she had been diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia. Curator Julianne Burton-Carvajal saw her work and recommended an exhibition, which was mounted at the Pacific Grove Public Library in the Spring of 2015. At the opening it was announced the library gallery, thanks to anonymous donors, would be named for her.

By now she was living in the memory care wing at The Cottages of Carmel. There she became friends with accomplished, interesting people including a ballet dancer, Russian professor, dentist, choreographer, CEO, opera singer, fieldworker advocate, and, ironically, a charming ninety-six-year-old ``memorist.’’

Caregivers became friends too, people of grace and dedication: Jose and Tiffany and Maricar and Yuri and Amanda and Shirali and Julie and Conrad and Elizabeth and Lacey, among many.

Yolonda Campos, who had cared for Nancy when she was still living at home, was her close and beloved companion several afternoons a week at The Cottages. Dr. Gary Grant responded quickly when ``house calls’’ were needed, as did Kim, Estela, Constance, Jennifer and others from Hospice of the Central Coast.

Nancy leaves her mother Helen E. Burtch, of St. Louis; her sister Polly Burtch (Larry Gibbons), also of St. Louis; her husband, Steve; daughters Amy Hauk (Scott Dehm) of Columbus, Ohio, and Anne Hauk (Tom O’Connell) of San Francisco; and grandsons Victor Dehm and Wyatt and Henry O’Connell.

Nancy loved the library. Contributions in her name are recommended to the Friends of the Pacific Grove Public Library. A celebration of Nancy’s life is planned sometime in the near future.