Nicholas Christopher Howe MacNeil

Nicholas MacNeil died at home on May 23, 2025, from complications of Parkinson’s disease. Born August 31, 1939, in New Jersey, Nick and his sister Elizabeth spent their childhood years in Haiti, where their parents lived from 1947 to 1967. Nick attended Ridley College, a Canadian boarding school, and then Princeton University, followed by four years in the Navy, including two years on an LST.

Nick joined the State Department Foreign Service in 1966. He served in Guatemala and after 8 months of Vietnamese language training he went to Sadec, Vietnam for 18 months as a district advisor with the US Agency for International Development. Afterwards, Nick earned a Master’s in Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he met his wife, Linda Blackwelder.

In 1974 Nick was posted back to Vietnam, to Danang, to report on security conditions. Linda and their 8-month-old daughter Marcia joined him there. In March 1975 the South Vietnamese government collapsed in Danang and they were among the last to leave. Nick received the State Department Award for Valor for his role in assisting American civilians and Vietnamese refugees to escape from Danang.

Nick’s following post was in Bogota with his family. He subsequently left the Foreign Service and joined the Carter-Mondale campaign. In 1980 he reapplied to the Foreign Service and was assigned to a Vietnamese refugee program based in Bangkok. His family joined him there. They had three more overseas postings in New Delhi, Montreal, and Fiji before Nick retired in 1996.

Nick had a number of interests outside the Foreign Service. He worked on house renovation in Old Town, Alexandria. He loved sailing; for two summers he taught sailing at Fishers Island; in Fiji he sailed a Hobie Cat. With his son John he went on camping trips in the Canadian Rockies and Pacific Northwest. He loved Haiti, and felt that his life had been strongly influenced by the spirit and suffering of that country.

Nick and Linda moved to Staunton in 2001. Nick enjoyed the cultural life of the city and served on the boards of the Valley Conservation Council, the Staunton Kiwanis Club, the Staunton Democratic Committee, as well as Rail Solution, to reduce truck traffic on I-81.

Nick is survived by his wife of 53 years, Linda Blackwelder MacNeil; his daughter, Marcia, and her husband, Ricardo Espitia, and their two sons, Timoteo and Ian; his daughter, Laura, and her husband, Matthew Tolbert; and his daughter-in-law, Ruxandra, and her two daughters, Zelda and Isadora; and his sister, Elizabeth Wells. Nick was pre-deceased by his parents, Charles and Barbara MacNeil, and in 2020, by his son, John.

A celebration of life will be held at a later date.

Relatives and friends may share condolences and memories with the family online by visiting www.reynoldshamrickfuneralhomes.com

Arrangements entrusted to the Staunton Chapel of Reynolds Hamrick Funeral Homes.