Remember me
A Seattle-area philanthropist who once lived in a beautiful nearly $5 million lakeside home has died at the age of 93.
Nancy Skinner Nordhoff died of natural causes on January 7.
'She died peacefully at home in her bed, surrounded by flowers and candles, family and friends, and attended by our wonderful Tibetan lama Dza Kilung Rinpoche,' her wife, Lynn Hays, announced.
Nordhoff was born into one of Seattle's great philanthropic families, the youngest child of Winifred Swalwell Skinner and Gilbert W. Skinner, according to the Seattle Times.
She went on to attend Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, and met Art Nordhoff when she was learning how to fly planes at Bellevue airfield. They got married in 1957 and had three children - Chuck, Grace and Carolyn.
Nordhoff then became known for her volunteer work and in the 1980s she decided to re-evaluate her life as she divorced Art and traveled across the country in a van at the age of 50.
It was later that decade that she first met Hays while she was working to build a women's writers' retreat.
The two women have since built a life together at a beautiful 5,340 square foot lakefront home before they sold it in 2020.
Nancy Skinner Nordhoff, a Seattle-based philanthropist, died of natural causes on January 7
Nordhoff and Hays lived in a beautiful nearly $5 million lakeside house
It boasts seven bedrooms and five bathrooms, with views of Seattle, a private Zen garden and plenty of natural lighting.
'With a nod to Northwest midcentury style, a down-to-the-studs remodel provided stylish spaces for gathering and everyday living, including an updated kitchen and great room, plus [a] fabulous rec room,' a listing for the home reads.
It goes on to invite prospective buyers to 'dine alfresco on multiple view decks.'
The listing estimates the gorgeous home is worth nearly $4.8 million.
But it is another property that Nordhoff is most known for - the writer's retreat at Hedgebrook, which has hosted more than 2,000 authors free of charge since it was founded in 1988.
The retreat was the brain child of Nordhoff and her friend Sheryl Feldman, after Nordhoff confessed that women's issues were of the utmost importance to her.
'One of [Nordhoff's] wonderful qualities is she is going to make it happen,' Feldman told the Seattle Times.
'She is dogged, she doesn't hesitate to spend the money, and off she goes.'
Nordhoff was better known for a different piece of property - the 48-acre women's writer's retreat Hedgebrook
As the two were working to build the 48-acre writer's compound, Nordhoff started meeting with Hays, a letter press printer - usually over dinner.
'We'd talk about colors of inks or fonts or papers on whatever,' Hays recounted. 'It didn't take long until we were just talking, talking, talking.
'Our great adventure began with the birth of Hedgebrook and went on for 35 years,' she said.
Each of the retreat's six cabins now feature a wood-burning stove because Nordhoff thought every woman should be able to light a fire to keep themselves warm.
'[Nancy] led with kindness,' said Kimberly AC Wilson, the current executive director of Hedgebrook.
'What I saw in Nancy was how you could be kind and powerful,' she continued. 'You were lucky to know her and know that someone like her existed and was out there trying to make the world a place you want to live in.'
Nordhoff was also known for her volunteer work for a number of different causes
Aside from her work at Hedgebrook, Nordhoff was known for volunteering with organizations including Overlake Memorial Hospital (now called Overlake Medical Center and Clinics), the Junior League of Seattle, Pacific Northwest Grantmakers Forum (now Philanthropist Northwest) and Seattle City Club - a nonpartisan organization she cofounded in 1980 in response to many of the men's only clubs.
She also cofounded the nonprofit Goosefoot in 1999, which supports everything from local businesses to affordable housing on Whidbey Island.
But her guiding light was to 'counsel people to find their [own] generous spirit,' Hays said.
'You become bigger when you support organizations and people that are doing good things, because then you're a part of that. And your tiny little world and your tiny little heart - they expand. And it feels really good.'
Many online now remember Nordhoff for that generous spirit.
'Nancy epitomized Mount Holyoke's mantra of living with purposeful engagement with the world,' one person commented on Hedgebrook's post announcing her passing. 'I am inspired by the depth of her efforts and the width of her contributions.'
Another said she 'created an intimate, restorative, generative space where writers feel seen and supported and utterly free. Where we women artists, many of whom spend a great deal of our lives subsumed by duty of care to others, can feel deeply cared for ourselves.
'I carry my gratitude for her and for Hedgebrook into all that I do,' she wrote.
In addition to Hays and her three children, Nordhoff is now survived by seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.