NANCY WARE CUTLER (1920-2021)
Nancy Ware Cutler cared more deeply for her family and her friends than anything else in her life. They were what mattered to her the most and she had a large family and a wide circle of friends, all of whom treasured her. She lived to be 100 years old and died peacefully in bed at North Hill Retirement Community in Needham on the morning of March 26th, 2021.
She was born in Boston on September 30th, 1920, arriving on her mother, Elisabeth Kinsman Ware’s, birthday. Her father was Storer Preble Ware. She was the youngest of six children, three girls and three boys. As the youngest she said she felt a deep sense of the importance of family from an early age. She grew up in Westwood, Mass. and attended Milton Academy in Milton, Mass. Upon graduating from Milton Academy she spent a year studying in Florence, Italy, which sparked a life-long love of travel.
In 1940 she married Eric Cutler of Needham, Mass. He had just graduated form Harvard and soon enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He was stationed in Italy during the war while Nancy cared for their first two children and volunteered at the V.A. Hospital in West Roxbury. After the war they moved into the Ware family home in Westwood, where they lived for many years and raised five children. In 1972, with all the children out of the house, they left the home in Westwood and moved to West Street in Dedham where they lived until 2008. Eric was Assistant Director of Admissions, student advisor, coach and Assistant Director of Athletics at Harvard College and Nancy and Eric welcomed many students from far away into their home in Westwood and into their hearts throughout those years.
Apart from caring for her five children, Nancy was an avid reader, an excellent athlete and a feisty competitor. She captained the field hockey team at Milton Academy, later excelled at tennis and golf, and was always ready for a game of cards or backgammon. She loved spending time at the house she and Eric built on Squam Lake in New Hampshire where they gathered summers with friends and family from near and far.
Nancy was predeceased by her husband, Eric, who died in 2010, and by her son, Nathan Cutler, who died in 1998. She leaves her daughters Erica Labouisse of New Orleans, LA. and Elisabeth Cutler of Castel Gondolfo, Italy, and her sons, Abbot of Shelburne Falls, Mass. and Joshua of Washington, New Jersey. She also leaves a large family of eight grandchildren and nineteen great grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held in the summer, when hopefully more of her beloved family and friends can safely gather.
To send flowers
to the family or plant a tree
in memory of Nancy Ware Cutler, please visit our floral store.