Obituary of Katharine S. Nash

Katharine Selden Nash (“Kitty”) passed away peacefully on Tuesday morning, April 25^th at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston under the care of her family and her palliative care team at the age of 91.

Kitty was born on the 27^th of August in 1931 and grew up during the early years of the Great Depression on Highland Street in Weston, MA. The daughter of Marion Selden Nash and William Baldwin Nash of Weston, Milton, and later Duxbury, Kitty graduated from Milton Academy in 1949 and obtained an A.B. degree in French from Oberlin College in 1953.   

Among her professional work, Kitty worked for a variety of companies in Boston for sixteen years:  Ginn and Company until 1967 (college textbooks), Kendall Company until 1971 (textiles), and Cabot, Cabot & Forbes until 1975 (Real Estate).  In 1976, she crossed the Charles River to accept a series of administrative positions with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which lasted over a decade.  This included work at the Optical and Infrared Laser Laboratory, the Center for Transportation Studies, the Plasma Fusion Group, and other work in support of a former President and Chairman of the Corporation itself.

As suggested by her photo, Kitty loved to travel, especially to Europe where she visited many countries, including Russia, Poland, and the former Yugoslavia.  Her commitment to travel gave her a very broad and well-informed world view, so she always loved to debate what was in the news.  She smiled when we asked her to hang in there for the upcoming election in 2024 when her clearest views could continue to be represented. 

Kitty also loved music and the opera and was interviewed for a feature article by the Boston Lyric Opera New England in 2002, during which she was quoted describing how much she loved to indulge in opera:  “It transports you away from the ordinary, everyday world to a place where you are exposed to another level of beauty and creativity, where music, imagination, passion and drama combine to create a feast for the senses and emotions.”  In that article, it was equally clear that she found a way to combine her thrifty Nash heritage with her desire for both travel and opera in one fell swoop, when Kitty and a close friend were able to buy opera tickets in Poland for 25 cents!

Kitty was predeceased by her older brother, John Brewster Nash (2015), her sister-in-law, Polly Parsons Nash (2014), and her nephew, Jonathan Brewster Nash (2015), all of Duxbury.   She is survived by her niece Emily and husband Frank Hunnewell of Wellesley and her nephew Tim and wife Jody Boardman Nash of Hingham.  She is also survived by a grandnephew, Ben Hunnewell of Wellesley and six grandnieces:  Eliza Hunnewell of Wellesley, Hannah, Sophie & Lucy Nash of Hingham, and Isabel & Charlotte Potter of Cohasset.  

A memorial service and reception will be held with her friends and family at Goddard House in Brookline later this spring, following a private family burial which will take place at the Mayflower Cemetery in Duxbury on a date yet to be determined.  Shepherd Funeral Home in Kingston will be helping with the arrangements.  In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to The Goddard House Employee Appreciation Fund in Brookline (goddardhouse.org) or the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Foundation’s Palliative Care Program in Boston (www.bidmc.org).