Nancy J. Thompson

She was born March 11, 1956 at Beal Air Force Base in Yuba City, California. She and her sister Susan were the twin daughters of Joan and Richard Schmickle. She grew up in Iowa and California, and graduated from Whittier High School in Whittier, CA. She attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in San Luis Obispo, CA and graduated with a B.A. in Liberal Studies in 1978. She and John Thompson were married on November 7, 1998 at Sts. Peter and Paul Greek Orthodox Church in Glenview, Illinois.

Nancy served as a missionary in Campus Crusade for Christ for 8 years training students in Christian leadership and ministry in the US, Poland, Czechoslovakia and what were then the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Nancy's career also included working with weekend college programs. From 1995 to 1997 she worked in the library at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois, where she met her future husband. She was also a book editor at Multnomah Publishers in Sisters, Oregon.

Nancy and John moved to Waynesburg in 2001, when John began to work in the library at Waynesburg University. She home-schooled her three children—Luis, Roberto, and Catherine— with great care. Her interests included reading, gardening, weaving, drawing and painting. She had attended icon painting workshops and enjoyed serving her church and community. She was a member of St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church in Canonsburg, PA and will be deeply missed by her many friends and family members.

Surviving are her husband, John Thompson; three children, Luis, Roberto, and Catherine Thompson of Waynesburg; her father, Richard Schmickle of Libertyville, IL and her sister, Susan Schmickle of Loveland, CO. Her mother, Joan Schmickle, is deceased.

Memorial gifts may be sent in Nancy’s memory to the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration, 321 Monastery Lane, Ellwood City, PA 16117.

Friends will be received from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 6 to 9 p.m. on Thursday at the Behm Funeral Home, 182 W. High Street, Waynesburg. The Orthodox funeral service will be at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, August 5 at the First Presbyterian Church, 169 W. College St., Waynesburg, with Fr. Patrick Reardon celebrant. Internment will be at the Rosemont Cemetery in Rogersville., Condolences may be offered at www.behmfh.com