Nancy Phyllis Greene Milstein, of Ithaca, N.Y., died on June 27. She was 83. Nancy was born Christmas Eve 1937 in Auburn, Maine, to Myer Greene and Eva Kleven Greene. She grew up in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine. She graduated from House in the Pines in Massachusetts and earned her nursing degree from Simmons College. While attending college in Boston, Nancy met and later married her partner of 61 years, Herbert Milstein. After college, Nancy was a registered nurse in Illinois, New York, Virginia and then Washington.
In the 1980s, after having taken time from work to raise her family, she returned to nursing and worked to unionize Sibley Hospital in Washington to create better working conditions for all nurses there. After retiring from nursing, Nancy became director of development at The McLean School.
In addition to Herb, Nancy is survived by her three children, Lori of Washington, Mark of Ithaca, N.Y., and Andrew of Syracuse, N.Y.; their spouses, David, Monica and Melissa, respectively, whom she considered her own; her grandchildren, Joshua, Charlotte, Eva, Max, Badyn and Arlo; and her dear cousins, Diane, Ellen and Gail, who were the siblings she never had. Donations may be made to the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center (www.mvhc.us; 130 Center St., Vineyard Haven, MA 02568) to support the MVHC Summer Institute film and speakers series.
