SKILLMAN Nancy Moffat Lifland, 93, of Skillman, NJ, passed away peacefully on February 28, 2022. The daughter of the late Marion Adams Moffat and Abbot Low Moffat, she was predeceased by her husband William Thomas Lifland in 2012. Born in New York, she spent her childhood on a farm in Fitzwilliam, NH but lived with her grandmother in Manhattan during the academic year from the age of 9 so that she could attend the Brearley School. She attended Vassar College, majoring in Applied Economics, and following graduation in 1948, moved to London where she took classes at the London School of Economics and learned to fly glider planes. Returning to Washington, DC in 1950, Nancy went to work as an economist in the State Department, where she wrote monographs on various matters of interest to policymakers. There she met her husband Bill Lifland, an attorney then working in the Air Force General Counsel’s office. After marrying in 1954, the couple moved briefly to New York and then back to Washington, where Bill clerked for Supreme Court Justice John Harlan and the couple had the first of their four children, daughter Carol. After the clerkship, Bill and Nancy moved to New York where Nancy taught at the Brearley School, and Bill joined the law firm of Cahill, Gordon & Reindel. Their second child, Charles, was born during their New York years. Nancy and Bill then moved abroad for a two-year stint at the law firm’s Paris office, where their third child, Kerin, was born. Returning to the States in 1960, they moved to Princeton where son David was born. In Princeton, Nancy and Bill joined the congregation of Trinity Episcopal Church and Nancy became active in many local activities. She managed fundraiser sales of plants for Trinity and household goods for Princeton Hospital. She taught sixth grade at the Chapin School and served as its volunteer librarian. She ran many of the book fairs held at both Chapin School and Princeton Day School, which her children attended, and worked on all manner of school projects, from managing publicity for the PDS Festival of the Arts, to building scenery for the theater department and constructing a fun house for the PDS fair. A self-taught builder, Nancy supervised construction projects at home too, hiring her children and their friends to implement her design for a bluestone patio and teaching them stone-laying techniques at the same time. In the community, Nancy had numerous leadership roles. She served on the board of the Religious Ministries PHCS for almost 30 years, many as its treasurer, providing chaplains at local hospitals. She was a member of the Trinity Vestry Committee and chaired its Christian Action Board’s Grants Committee, rewriting its mission statement and guidelines for evaluating grant requests. She also served as treasurer for the Princeton Festival and the Princeton Women’s College Club. She volunteered at the Trinity Altar Guild and worked part-time for Princeton’s Town Topics newspaper. Nancy was a life-long music lover. She learned piano as a child and sang for many years in the Trinity Church choir. In her spare time, she played soprano, alto and tenor recorder in a quartet called Recorders Four. She encouraged all of her children to learn an instrument and sing and imbued in all of them a love for music of all kinds. She especially loved classical music and regularly attended performances of the New York Philharmonic, the New Jersey Symphony, and the Princeton Symphony, among many others. An avid outdoorswoman, Nancy described herself as “horse-crazy” in her youth. As an adult, she enjoyed tennis, including Seniors Mixed Doubles, as well as hiking and skiing with her children and bike riding around New Jersey with her husband. She loved theater and was a regular at the Shaw Festival in Ontario, Canada, first with Bill and later with various children and grandchildren. She was also a committed bridge player, making a grand slam just two weeks before her passing! A lifelong learner, she took classes virtually every semester through the Evergreen Forum of the Princeton Senior Resource Center on a broad range of topics, including poetry, literature, opera, Chilean politics and Islam. She was a generous philanthropist as well, supporting many local and national organizations. Nancy was a beloved mother, grandmother, aunt, cousin and friend. She is survived by her four children, their spouses Daniel Giesberg, Alison Lifland and Cathy Radmer, eleven grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and by her brother, Burnham Moffat. A lover of travel, nature and culture, she hosted trips to the Galapagos, the Baltic countries and Africa for many of her family over the years, deepening their bonds with her and each other, something she considered her greatest legacy. A memorial service celebrating her life will be held at Trinity Church in Princeton on Sunday, June 12 at 2pm. A reception will follow at the Present Day Club. Donations in Nancy’s honor may be made to the Princeton Women’s College Club, HomeFront, or to the charity of your choice. Condolences may be sent to Carol Lifland at 218 Bronwood Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90049, or to [email protected]
Published by “The Times, Trenton,” from Jun. 4 to Jun. 5, 2022.
