Nora M. Nevin (née Macfarlane), beloved daughter, sister, mother, wife, and stepmother, passed away on July 27, 2022, peacefully in her sleep, in Los Angeles, where she moved during the pandemic to be closer to her family.
Ms. Nevin was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1935, and raised on Long Island. She attended Wellesley College, from which she graduated cum laude in 1956. She married Patrick Ophuls shortly thereafter, and moved to Miami, where he was stationed in the Coast Guard Search and Rescue Coordination Center. While in Miami, Ms. Nevin worked for the Miami Herald, writing predominantly for the society pages, covering everything from horse races to debutante balls, to celebrity galas. This job cemented an early love of nonfiction writing, something she would pursue academically and as a practice for the rest of her life.
After Miami, they moved to Washington, D.C., where Mr. Ophuls was inducted into the Foreign Service and worked on the Afghanistan desk in the State Department. Their next posting was to Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire. While in West Africa, they had a child who died tragically. They were then sent to Tokyo, Japan, where their first son, Nicholas, was born in 1963. Later they would move to New Haven, Conn., where their second son, Hardy, was born in 1968. Nora and Patrick were divorced not long after, and she worked for many years starting the first hospice in the U.S., in the New Haven area.
In 1979 she married John A. (“Tony”) Nevin on Thanksgiving Day, inheriting five stepchildren from Tony’s previous marriage: Martha, Sarah, Scott, Barbara, and Mark. The family moved to Durham, N.H. There she attained a master’s degree in nonfiction writing from the University of New Hampshire, where she later taught the same subject for many years, a job that brought her great joy and satisfaction. She and Tony retired to their beloved Martha’s Vineyard in the 1990s, where they were involved in many aspects of Island life, including being early advocates for low-income housing on the Island, the Chamber Music Society, local and regional political causes, and many different Island institutions related to the theater.
She is survived by both her sons, all five of her stepchildren, three grandchildren, and four step-grandchildren. She is greatly missed.