1920 - 2019
YARMOUTH, Nancy Ryan Benoit, 98, of Yarmouth, Cape Elizabeth and Cliff Island passed away peacefully on October 16, 2019 after almost 99 years of a full, meaningful and remarkable life.
Nancy was born in Newton, Massachusetts to George Benedict Ryan and Mary Webb Dinegan Ryan. She was the middle child in a family of five children. She graduated from Newton High School in 1938 and The College of William and Mary in 1942, where she earned a BA in Sociology and Government.
After graduation, she worked at the Radiation Lab at MIT during the rush to develop radar in the early days of WWII. Her job there as secretary to Nobel Prize winning physicist Isidor Rabi ended with his transfer, at which time she joined the American Red Cross, serving first in Washington, DC and later in the CBI Theater in India. At the end of the war she continued with the Red Cross in China, working with US occupation forces in Tientsin (Tianjin). Upon her return to the U.S. she worked stints at Houghton Mifflin Publishers and the law firm, Bingham, Dana & Gould in Boston.
In 1951 she married her husband, André Eugene Benoit. Together they enjoyed 65 years of marriage while raising four children. They spent memorable summers at the family cottage on her beloved Cliff Island, where she first came as a two year-old child and stayed with friend and artist, Marion Plack.
While living in Cape Elizabeth she served on the Cape Elizabeth School Board and volunteered in many community organizations including the Well Baby Clinic and the St. Bartholomew Church Council. She also worked diligently to maintain Fort Williams as a park and recreation area open to all. Additionally, she volunteered and served actively with Greater Portland Landmarks, Sweetser Children’s Home, Center for Hearing and Speech, Portland Museum of Art, Citizens Who Care and The Junior League of Portland. She was a dedicated and passionate public servant always bringing with her a sense of duty and responsibility for the greater good.
Nancy was a lover of nature as evidenced by her joie de vivre and where and how she chose to spend her time - she was always aware of the moon phases and the ebbing and flowing of ocean tides. She was well versed in literature and music and could recite prose with great familiarity.
She was predeceased by her husband André and her four siblings, Mary Webb Seagrave, John Ryan, Elizabeth Burns, and George Ryan and daughter-in-law Holly Holden Benoit. She is survived by her four children, sons André Jr. of Boothbay Harbor, Peter of Wasilla, Alaska, John, of Scarborough and a daughter, Joan, and her husband Scott Samuelson of Freeport, and eight grandchildren; Peter, Edward, and André III Benoit; Abigail (husband Matthew Dunlap) and Anders Samuelson; Matthew, Gregory (wife Christina) and Margaret Benoit.
Our warmest gratitude to the Bay Square community in Yarmouth and its committed and caring staff who always went the extra miles for our mother and father.
A Memorial Mass will be celebrated at 11 am on Monday, October 21, 2019, at Sacred Heart Church, 326 Main St., Yarmouth, ME.
Please visit www.lindquistfuneralhome.com to visit Nancy’s online guest book.
In lieu of flowers please consider sending contributions to the Cliff Island Stone Library and The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at MMC.
