Nancy Gaylord Powers

Nancy 'Gay' Elwell Powers, 83, passed away peacefully in her home with her children by her side on March 29, 2025. A devoted mother, naturalist, conservationist, and artist, Gay valued quality over excess and found beauty in the practical unadorned aspects of life. She lived a life of caregiving - for people, birds, and plants - always with a smile and a laugh.

Born on March 11, 1942, in Boston MA under the water sign of Pisces, Gay was drawn to the sea, whether rowing, sailing or swimming - even in the iciest New England waters. A true outdoorswoman from childhood, she spent her early years playing outside more than in, handling snakes without hesitation, and embracing every adventure nature had to offer. She never had use for frills or fuss, preferring the raw beauty of the world around her over anything artificial. Known as "Dynamite" in her youth (and sometimes "Dyna-Might-Not"), she embraced life with both vigor and quiet contemplation.

After earning a nursing degree at Skidmore College in 1964, she worked as a visiting nurse in New York City before settling in Akron, Ohio to raise a family. As a mother of three, she dedicated herself to raising a child with severe autism at a time when there was little professional or medical understanding or mainstream awareness that autism existed. The movie Rain Man wouldn't even be released until 18 years after her son was born. Gay found deep friendships arranging flowers at Stan Hywet with the Junior League of Akron and pioneered early adoption of horse therapy at Pegasus Farms and later, Victory Gallop.

A lover of simple joys, she celebrated every day with a spartan approach. For 30 years Gay was a steadfast member of the Cuyahoga Valley Art Center where she captured the beauty of wildflowers, birds, and boats on her artist's canvas through oil and watercolor painting. She found comfort in the slow, intentional rhythms of life - baking bread with a No. 4 Universal hand crank, having adventures in her own backyard, finding meaning in the process not just the outcome. Being outdoors was her solace, notorious for taking sunbaths on the hammock after lunch and picnics in the park, even with snow on the ground. She could often be seen walking the paths of Bath Nature Preserve or her neighborhood loop in Fairlawn. Her deep commitment to sustainability and quality was evident in the well-worn pair of LL Bean boots she received in college - boots that, after 50 years of hiking, snow shoveling and gardening, she had resoled and continued wearing for another 13 years.

Gay is preceded in death by her parents, Bill and Elizabeth Elwell, brother Bill Elwell Jr., and beloved husband, Phillip Powers. She leaves behind three children, Nicholas (Kat), Spencer, Tanya (Jim), five grandchildren: August, Claudia, Celia, Zachary, and Lucy, sister Sue Newbury, sister-in-law Anna Keith (Bob) Whitaker, several nieces and nephews and a lifetime of lessons in resilience, kindness, and living with purpose.

She cherished deep, true connections that made life rich, preferring intimate gatherings over big parties, knowing love is best shared in moments of sincerity in a small group. Her warmth, confidence, generosity and quiet strength will be dearly missed by all who knew her.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be mailed to Bath Nature Preserve, Bath Township, Attn: BNP Park Donation, P.O. Box 1188, Bath, OH, 44210-1188. Gay Powers will be honored with a small service later this year. 

Sail on, Gaylord.

Sunset and evening star, 

     And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar,

      When I put out to sea,

   But such a tide as moving seems asleep,

      Too full for sound and foam,

When that which drew from out the boundless deep

      Turns again home.

   Twilight and evening bell,

      And after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell,

      When I embark;

   For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place

      The flood may bear me far,

I hope to see my Pilot face to face

      When I have crost the bar.

~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson