Shortly after celebrating her 100th birthday, Nancy Morse Samelson died peacefully on August 15, 2020 at her care home in Sunnyvale, California. She is survived by her stepson, Peter of Verona, N.J.; daughter, Amy of San Jose, Calif.; and son, Roger of Corvallis, Ore.; and two grandchildren. She was predeceased in 2005 by her husband of nearly 50 years, Hans Samelson.
Nancy began her life in White Plains, New York, on June 2, 1920 as Nancy Carter Morse. She grew up on the east coast during the Great Depression, in New York and western Massachusetts. Her strength and determination showed early in her adult life: when her father reneged on an agreement to send her to college, she found a way to attend anyway and earned an undergraduate degree from Syracuse University. She followed that with a Master’s degree from Columbia University and then, in 1947, a Ph. D. in Social Psychology from Syracuse University, where she worked with Floyd Allport, one of the founders of the field. Her thesis on “The Causation of Anti-Semitism: An Investigation of Seven Hypotheses” was published in the Journal of Psychology in 1952. The thesis topic reveals an interest in social justice that continued throughout her life.
After completion of her Ph.D., Nancy took a position at the well-known Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan. While in Michigan she conducted research and collaborated on several books about productivity and satisfaction in the workplace. There she met, for a second time, a mathematics professor named Hans Samelson. They had met several years earlier in Syracuse, when both volunteered at the local neighborhood co-op. They met again in 1954, as Samelson’s first marriage was failing and ending in divorce. Nancy and Hans married in 1956. They had two children together, Amy in 1958 and Roger in 1959. When Hans accepted a professorship at Stanford in 1960, the family moved to California. Having given up the full-time job she held in Michigan, Nancy took the lead in child-rearing and became active in local cooperatives. Impressed with the Palo Alto Food Co-op, Nancy proposed in 1973 that a cable television co-op get started. Eventually, the new group won the right to operate as Cable Co-op which still serves Palo Alto as locally controlled, two-way communication system of information.
Nancy thrived in academia. Using her background in social psychology, she took a position as research associate in the civil engineering department at Stanford and began a collaboration with Stanford professors Clark Oglesby and Raymond Levitt on human factors in construction management. The research held challenges - she went out to job sites to complete interviews and surveys in the heavily male-dominated construction industry. She worked at Stanford from 1973 to 1985 and co-authored with Levitt a pioneering text titled “Construction Safety Management,’’ with the first edition published in 1987 and the second edition in 1993. Between 1981 and 1993, they wrote an additional three papers on construction safety and management practices.
Nancy and Hans and their family spent the academic year 1967-1968 in England and the Netherlands. While in the Netherlands, Nancy became fascinated with the work of Rembrandt van Rijn. This fascination would stay with her for the rest of her life. In 1995, motivated by this interest, Nancy began a course of study in Art History at San Jose State University. She earned a Master’s degree two years later with her thesis titled “Rembrandt’s pictures and his life: the Leiden years”. When she was asked why she undertook another degree program, she said it was important to push oneself to keep one’s mind active.
While living at Stanford, she and Hans became active in Palo Alto Friends Meeting. Nancy was strongly opposed to war and attended anti-war marches with her children. Their memberships as convinced Friends were recorded in 1984. She served on many committees and was instrumental in reviving the Harvest Festival when it moved from Hidden Villa. As Meeting was considering laying it down, she volunteered to single-handedly organize a Harvest Bazaar in the Meeting parking lot. Her enthusiasm and willingness to take the lead gave others the heart to maintain a tradition that continues to this day.
Her hobbies included writing haikus which amounted eventually to 3 small books which she gave to family members, and practicing the Chinese art of Qi Gong, which she did well into her 90s. She also enjoyed sailing on the Bay in her small sailboat. She once capsized in a tricky wind off Hunter’s Point. Eventually the boat was donated to the Stanford Sailing Club. The family enjoyed camping. They would load up the 1961 Studebaker wagon and drive up somewhere into the Sierra Nevada where Nancy would cook over the wood fire. She and Hans enjoyed opera and theater. Nancy’s favorite was Shakespeare.
Nancy was well-known for her generosity. She provided hospitality for many months to a member of Palo Alto Friends Meeting whose house was severely flooded in the 1998 Palo Alto flood. She readily invited others to her home for meals and to swim in the pool at her and Hans’ retirement complex on the Stanford campus.
Always energetic, she rode her bike to and from Meeting for Worship on Sundays into her 70s. She also participated in the early morning Thursday Meditation Group held at the Meetinghouse. A Friend remembers her excitement about receiving enlightenment regarding the impermanence principle while riding across the Oregon Expressway overpass. “Aging— No Escape! Dying— No Escape!” Nancy enthusiastically reported: “...and I thought, 'Isn’t that wonderful??’"
She will be remembered as a caring and faithful member of the Meeting who always had a sparkle in her eye and energy for a multitude of tasks. She was much loved and is fondly remembered.