June 10, 2024, by Lisa Teas Conaway

Inquisitive by nature, Nancy Ricketts’s early life was filled with memories of exploring the intertidal world with her family from California to Washington. Her father, Ed Ricketts, had a specimen collecting business and would often make trips to the beach a family affair all the while teaching Nancy and her siblings about the different organisms’ scientific names and relationships. From these foundational experiences Nancy would foster a love of the marine environment for the remainder of her days. Her father, Ed Ricketts came to Sitka in ’32 and coauthored “Between Pacific Tides” with Jack Calvin of Sitka, which would become an important foundational book to all who study Marine Biology of the North Pacific Ocean.

Nancy lived in Sitka once during WWII with her mother before moving back with her second husband in the mid 70’s. She spent the rest of her days here working as an archivist and librarian at Sheldon Jackson College and volunteering throughout the community. She was an active writer during this period authoring several books including “Becoming Myself A memoir” in 2020 and contributing to a retrospective of her father “Ed Ricketts, From Cannery Row to Sitka, Alaska”, edited by Jan Straley. Her love of writing was immense and she shared it further through volunteering at Baranof Elementary (now Xóots) for over 30 years teaching first graders how to read.

Here at SSSC we are proud to have one of Nancy’s needleworks hanging in the classroom named after her father as well as her name christened to our research zodiac the Nancy R. In recent years Nancy was interviewed several times about her father, whom she loved telling stories of, and told Sherry Flumerfelt of Western Flyer Foundation

“I’ve had a long and interesting life. I’ve enjoyed it tremendously.” 

Her curiosity and love for learning are values we hold dear, Nancy will be sorely missed.