Obituary of Nancy Milne LaRouche

Nancy Milne LaRouche a globe-trotting adventurer formerly of Elmira and Rochester, NY (80) passed away on March 3, 2025. Nancy was born in Elmira on November 29, 1944, to the late Frederic F. Milne and Nancy Booth Milne. She is survived by her loving daughter Elizabeth M. Kelly, son-in-law David L. Kelly Jr. of Watkins Glen, NY, her son John M. McLeod III, daughter-in-law Megan S. McLeod of Princeton, NJ and her grandchildren Conner, Sam and Gavin Smith, Avery, Reese and Thayer McLeod, great-grandchild Tatum G. Smith; brother Christopher Booth Milne and sister-in-law Judee Rainville of Northampton, MA, and brother Frederic (Stormy) Forbes Milne, Jr. of Glendale, AZ. Nancy is predeceased by her husband Vincent Paul LaRouche. She is also predeceased by her former husband John M. Mcleod Jr. for whom she had a lifelong warm and loving friendship.

Nancy (“Bobo” to many of her closest friends) attended Hannah More Academy in Reisterstown, MD and Endicott Junior College in Beverly, MA. She moved to New York City in 1965 working at the New York Urban Coalition and for the American Field Service (AFS), an international youth organization that places students in cultural exchange programs across the globe. The AFS experience had a profound impact on Nancy, later inspiring both her love for community service and for travel. Nancy would later spend 28 years as an account executive for Western New York Computing Systems in Rochester, NY, retiring in 2005.

Much of Nancy’s life was spent in service to others. She was a longstanding member and former Vice President of the Arnot Art Museum and served in several leadership positions on the Board of the Elmira Junior League. Nancy was active in many local organizations, chairing the Community Foundation of Chemung County, the United Community Services, and the Bargain Hut Thrift Shop in Elmira. She also served on the Altar Guild and was a lifelong member of Grace Episcopal Church.

As a child and young adult Nancy’s summers were spent frolicking around Twilight Park in Haines Falls, NY where the family had a cabin. She spent many happy summers with her children along the shores of Keuka Lake and with friends and family in Martha’s Vineyard and later in Jekyll Island, Georgia where she was a member of the Jekyll Island Arts Association. Nancy was a proud member of the Rochester Garden Club and the Chatterbox Club both of which competed for her time with weekly pickle ball matches and golf lessons, a sport she thought was best introduced at the age of 77.

Nancy always lived life to the fullest and her insatiable wanderlust and love of adventure took her to every corner of the globe. More comfortable in a Mongolian yurt or Chinese cave than a 5-star hotel, her family always held their breath waiting to hear what distant – and sometimes dangerous – land Nancy was off to next. With Habitat for Humanity, Earthwatch or Village Volunteers, in the final 15 years of her life Nancy’s travels took her to Botswana, Mozambique, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, China, India, Cambodia, Jordon, Egypt, Morocco, Georgia, Tanzania, Qatar, Rwanda and Antarctica, just to name a few. It was important to Nancy that her passion for travel and culture was passed down to her other great love, Nancy’s grandchildren. Each of the six grandkids would receive with excitement the long-anticipated call on their 10^th birthday with one question: “where do you want to go?” Starting with Belize in 2011 followed by a dude ranch in Montana, ziplining in Costa Rica, fishing for king salmon in Alaska, and cooking paella in Spain before a dramatic finish just three years ago with her youngest grandchild exploring the glaciers of Iceland by snowmobile.

A Funeral Service will be held at 11:00 AM on Saturday, March 15 at Grace Episcopal Church, 375 W. Church Street, Elmira NY. In lieu of flowers, donations to the American Field Service (afs.org/donate/) or the Rochester Garden Club (rochestergardenclub.com/donate) are welcome.