Nan Elizabeth Siebert

Nan Elizabeth Siebert was born on August 23, 1929, in Detroit, Mich., to Carl and Elizabeth Hubach. Her father told her she'd brought on the Great Depression, but she never took that very seriously. To say she was her own person is a huge understatement. From a very early age she forged a unique trail through life and much of the world. Not many young American women in the early 1950s, just out of college, would choose to board a freighter heading overseas to teach at an American army base in Germany. But Nan was headstrong, unique and a fun-loving risk taker. All of these traits are evident through the trajectory of her 80 years on this planet.

After growing up in Texas, she graduated from the University of Michigan, and soon ran off to Europe seeking adventure. She certainly found it, along with a German husband, or male war bride as she liked to call Klaus W. Siebert, whom she married there in 1954. They returned to the U.S. to start a family, ending up with three boys and a girl. Nan settled somewhat uneasily into life as a housewife with her traditional husband in a lovely New Jersey suburb near New York City. While she enjoyed the cocktail-infused bridge parties, she always yearned for wide open spaces and adventures. She was not particularly fond of domesticity, nor any typical female roles for her generation. Every family vacation with Mom involved heading to the great outdoors, up and down the East Coast in a Volkswagen camper van, and one summer on a cross-country trek in a 1947 school bus. Her husband's untimely death in 1976, ultimately compelled her to follow her heart and move to the Northwest, where she completely re-invented herself in Ashland, Ore. Over the next 30 years, she fashioned a wonderful life there with many friends, volunteering, theater, nature, education and world travels. She orchestrated several intergenerational Elderhostel trips with individual grandchildren, building memories of travel adventures, rather than cookie-baking, with Nana.' When her health became a bit challenging, she moved to Portland in 2007, to be closer to her children and grandchildren.

She is survived by her four children and their spouses, Steve (Jill), Kathryn (Dave), Clark (Mary) and Fritz (Cindy); six grandchildren, Max, Emil, Randy, Austin, Madeline and Kendra; and many friends all over the globe. She also leaves behind countless memories of her great humor, instilled in all of us who were lucky enough to spend any time with her.

She was an original, a fighter, a lover of culture and nature, quick with a joke and always ready to raise a goblet of wine or burst into song. She told her kids she wanted an Irish wake at the end, preferably while she was still living so she could enjoy the party. Informal gatherings with much laughter would be the perfect tribute to this amazing woman, as well as remembrances to any wildlife fund in her honor.


Published in the Mail Tribune on 6/2/2010