Sixth-generation resident, active in Unitarian Church
Nancy Donaldson Dunlap. (Courtesy photo)
Nancy Royal (Donaldson) Dunlap, a 63-year resident of Harvard who was active in town affairs, died at her home in Harvard on June 11. She was 90 and had been ill with Parkinson’s disease.
She had an abundant enthusiasm for life, an infectious laugh and a warm heart. Above all, she valued loyalty and friendship, which she demonstrated throughout two long and happy marriages, and relationships that lasted a lifetime.
Nancy, whose father traced their family lines back to the Mayflower, was proud of her New England roots. She was a sixth-generation descendant of Edward Tyler, a sea captain who settled in Harvard after the War of 1812, and the granddaughter of Dr. Herbert B. Royal, who for 60 years practiced medicine in the old Harvard Tavern on the Common.
At the time of her death, she was the wife of James A. Dunlap Jr., a lifelong Harvard resident who had been delivered by “Doc” Royal. They had a 25-year marriage, traveling the world and enjoying nine grandchildren.
She was active in the Unitarian Church, the League of Women Voters, the Harvard Garden Club, the Woman’s Club and Harvard Help.
A music lover and avid piano player, Nancy was a member of Pro Musica and a frequent patron of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops. She was also a docent at Fruitlands Museum.
She was born Nancy Tyler Royal in Worcester on Aug. 8, 1921, the oldest child of Ellery Eaton Royal and Harriet Burdett Thayer, both graduates of Bromfield School’s Class of 1912.
Nancy was raised on the grounds of the city’s former Belmont Home, a public institution that served the indigent, where her father was superintendent. The “home farm” was later destroyed in the tornado of 1953.
She was a 1939 graduate of North High School and went on to the University of Maryland where she earned a degree in political science in 1943 and was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority.
In 1949, she married John “Jake” P. Donaldson, a reporter for the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. That year, after the death of her grandparents, they moved to Harvard and refurbished the 1734 Royal homestead, where they raised four children.
The Donaldsons sold that home in 1966 and founded the advertising agency, Royal Associates, which they operated out of their house on Lovers Lane. They were married for 35 years.
The most difficult time in her life was the death of her son John Royal Donaldson in 1979, followed by the death of her husband in 1984. But her therapy was the great outdoors and a wide, supportive circle of friends–”the girls”—whom she joined on the tennis court, by the ocean she loved, and on cross-country ski jaunts.
Eternally optimistic, she embraced life and love again.
In 1987, she married Jim Dunlap, whose wife Grace Dudley Dunlap had died in 1986. He was a retired director of William M. Mercer in Boston. The Donaldson and Dunlap families had shared years of friendship.
Her smile, her keen sense of humor and wonder at the simplest joys in life embodied her spirit. She will be missed by all those she left behind.
Nancy is survived by her husband and three children: Susan Donaldson James of Allentown, N.J.; Debbie Donaldson of Sebastopol, Calif.; and James Ellery Donaldson of Denver, Colo.; as well as two step-children, Robert James Dunlap of Thornton, N.H. and Beverly Dunlap Rodrigues of Groton, Mass.
She was a devoted grandmother to Alexander Donaldson James of New York City; Megan Royal James Houghton of Winooski, Vt.; Elizabeth Royal Holmgren of Denver, Colo.; and Mckenna Rose and Hadley Thayer Donaldson of Denver, Colo.; as well as step-grandchildren Meghan Augusta Smith of Bethlehem, N.H., and her daughter Meredith Kathleen; Brian James Dunlap of Santa Cruz, Calif.; and James Michael Rodrigues of Groton, Mass., and Jessica Grace Rodrigues of Cranston, R.I.
A memorial service will be held on Sunday, July 22 at 3 p.m. at the Unitarian Church in Harvard. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to: Nashoba Nursing Service & Hospice, 2 Shaker Rd., Suite D225, Shirley, Mass. 01464 or, the National Parkinson Foundation.
