NANCY L. DENKHAUS STOTT
My Lansdowne education began with seven good years at Ardmore Avenue Elementary School where we walked, with our friends, to and from school, four times each day (for physical fitness, I presume). We continued to walk a mile to high school, but only twice a day. The Aldan in Lansdowne-Aldan High School is significant to me because had the merger not happened when it did, Ken Stott would have chosen Upper Darby High School. It is hard to believe that we first met and began dating 53 years ago. When it became time to pick a career, I wavered slightly toward teaching history, but then remembered my lifetime ambition and chose nursing.
After graduating from LAHS my education included:
- Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
- Diploma in Nursing, 1959
- Cedar Crest College, Allentown, PA., BS, 1976
- Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, January – June, 1987
- Neuroscience Nursing Graduate Program Certificate
- The Pennsylvania State University, MS, Major in Nursing, 1990
Ken and I married in June 1959, shortly after I graduated from HUP. I worked there in Obstetrics for the two years we remained in Philadelphia while Ken finished at Drexel. My next twelve years were busy ones, spent primarily as a housewife/stay at home mom. We had five children: Ken III (1960), Karen (1961), Edward (1963), Nancy E. (1965), and after a breather Susan (1970). I did enjoy the activities of those years, even though it kept me quite busy. I did many things that I no longer do, like canning, making jelly, refinishing furniture, sewing and other home-based domestic ventures. Any thought of returning to work or starting a career was put on temporary hold as we relocated first to Morristown, NJ, then Ewingville, NJ, eventually landing in the Allentown area in 1966 with four children in tow. This was accomplished within a 5-year period. Ken was going to graduate school, traveling for his job and he always said that maybe I just didn’t have time to “work.” I hope he meant outside the home!
In 1969 I returned to college and, by taking one course at a time, graduated from Cedar Crest College in 1976. I had returned to nursing on a very limited basis in 1974 in order to gain some current experience. I began in 1976 what was an ideal part-time position as a Medical-Surgical Nursing Instructor for the Allentown Hospital School of Nursing. I worked 3 days per week, 44 weeks a year, with 2 weeks off at Christmas, in February, May and August. This schedule allowed me to be an actively involved parent. Five healthy active children participated in numerous school and extracurricular activities as well as church and scouting programs. The job itself also gave me the opportunity to do some classroom lecturing in addition to the hospital-based clinical teaching.
When we had three children in college and the steel industry was beginning to falter, it seemed like the ideal time to consider full-time employment. So, in 1983, I accepted a position in Neuroscience Nursing at Lehigh Valley Hospital Center and, from then until retiring in 2001, worked as a Neuroscience Clinical Nurse Specialist, first in Allentown and then at two hospitals in central New Jersey. For the last 10 years I was also a part-time lecturer on Medical Surgical Nursing in an Associate Degree Nursing Program. I thoroughly enjoyed the teaching.
Ken and I have always enjoyed traveling, and I was about to embark with fellow Neuroscience Nurses on a “People to People” program to China the morning the troops fired on the demonstrators in Tienmien Square. We were enroute from our hotel to Seattle’s airport for the flight to Tokyo when word came that we were not going. We were disappointed, but mostly angry at the Chinese Government for their actions. Now, more than 15 years later, a trip to China in general and specifically to visit the two birth cities of our 6- and 3-year-old Chinese-born granddaughters is very much on our “To-do List.” Time dissipates anger, and our beloved granddaughters certainly helped.
As retirement approached, I realized that I would like to look for volunteer activities that were not health-care related. I became a docent for the Allentown Art Museum. They provided the training and now I do a good many tours, primarily school groups, each year. This has allowed me to again enjoy my alternate career choice, teaching, and of all the age groups we do, I love the second graders best. Ken and I serve on a local Meals on Wheels route and find it both worthwhile and rewarding.
OUR biggest retirement project is the restoration of our church’s cemetery and graveyard. The first church and burials date to 1756 (with a very legible stone in German from 1762). We have restored over 1500 gravestones on a steep hill: That involves up-righting the fallen, straightening the leaning and epoxying the broken ones. This has been three summers worth of work every Saturday, with only about 200 gravestones remaining to do in the summer of 2006. For some unknown reason, I said yes to chairing the project. Ken is my able assistant, technical advisor, chief financial officer and as he says “ willing gopher.” To help with the physical labor part the project, we have supplemented our group of mostly seniors with Community Service Volunteers from Northampton County. Additionally, we had to come up with $50,000 to have stone and block retaining walls restored professionally. Applications to the State of Pennsylvania helped us receive $10,000. in grants.
Ken talks about where our children and grandchildren are currently living in his BIO. Just as neither of us can imagine how our lives might have been different had we not met at Lansdowne-Aldan, we can not imagine life without our immediate family of 23 and maybe still growing!!
Nancy & Ken Stott 610.7676.5642 nandk@ptd.net