Nancy Hammond, 1937–2025

Nancy Campbell Hammond of Lincoln died at her home on April 23, 2025 after two years of living with cancer. She was 87.

A native of Fremont, Neb., Nancy graduated from the University of Nebraska and moved to Pasadena, Calif. There, she embarked on a diverse career of work with children that ranged from researching childhood development, to teaching deaf children, to contributing to the nascent Head Start program to working as a children’s librarian.

She met and married John Hammond in California, and together they moved to the Boston area, purchasing a fixer-upper farmhouse in Lincoln that would be their home for the next half-century. While raising their two daughters, Sarah and Kate, Nancy completed a master’s degree in children’s literature at Simmons College. Later, Nancy reviewed children’s books for the Horn Book Magazine and worked as a children’s librarian at the Maynard and Cambridge Public Libraries, introducing countless kids to the joys of books.

Nancy’s curiosity about the birds at her backyard feeder developed into a lifelong interest in birding and the environment. She and John, often with Sarah and Kate and later their grandchildren, traveled the world to see birds, wildlife, and explore other cultures. Nancy worked tirelessly to remove exotic, invasive species from the family’s eight acre property. She was an avid supporter of Drumlin Farm, Mass Audubon, the Conservation Law Foundation, and the Boston Nature Center.

Nancy was a Boston and Nebraska sports fan, a reader, a naturalist, and a cultural explorer, always trying new restaurants, museums and music happenings in the Boston area with John and sharing her finds with friends. She was wonderfully dedicated to the causes she believed in, and to her family and friends. She was independent, stubborn, loyal, and warm-hearted.

Nancy was predeceased by her husband, John, and her brother, Kent Campbell. She is survived by her sister, Mary Pedersen, her daughters Sarah (Tim) and Kate (Geoff), and four grandchildren.

Services for Nancy will be private. Interment will be at Lincoln Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please do something for the environment. Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord, which provided this obituary. To share a remembrance or offer a condolence on Nancy’s tribute page, click here.