Nancy Rebekah Hernley Conrad

Nancy Rebekah Hernley Conrad died peacefully on August 29, 2010 in her home in Goshen, IN, surrounded by family members.   Born on March 18, 1919 in Scottdale, Pa. to Henry and Daisy Cutrell Hernley, she attended Goshen College (Ind.) and La Junta Mennonite Hospital School of Nursing (Colo.), earning BA and RN degrees in 1943.   On “loan” from Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to the United Nations toward the end of WWII, she traveled on a troop ship to Egypt where she lived in the desert near Alexandria and cared for Yugoslavian refugee children and women. For purposes of protocol she was given the nominal rank of lieutenant in the British Army, and was soon given the nickname of Sunshine by the troops. Next for a few months she worked among Greek women in Gaza, Palestine. During the second year of her MCC assignment she transferred to Nazareth, Ethiopia, where in January, 1946 she married Paul L. Conrad of Canby, Ore. For the next three years she helped to found the first hospital in that area. From 1951 to 1967 she served as a Mennonite Board of Missions missionary in Dhamtari, India. An avid language and Bible scholar, she studied Latin and Hebrew in college, and as an adult was proficient in Greek, Amharic, and Hindi. Returning in 1967 to her home town with her family, she earned BSc in Nursing (1977) and MSN (1979) degrees from the University of Pittsburgh (PA). For ten years she had a private practice as a psychiatric/mental health nurse clinician in the Scottdale area. During that time she served on the board of Mennonite Mutual Aid, and also as Vice President (1980-82) then President (1982-84) of the Mennonite Nurses Association, which named her Nurse of the Year for 1994. For several years at Laurelville Mennonite Church Center she and Paul assisted returning missionary families with issues pertaining to cultural readjustment.   In 2000 she moved with Paul to the Greencroft retirement community in Goshen, Ind. where they became members of College Mennonite Church.   She was predeceased by her parents, sister, Lilian, brothers, Marshall and Ralph, oldest son, John, and her husband of 62 years, Paul. She is survived by: sisters, Ferne, Catherine, and Martha; sisters-in-law, Elizabeth and Betty; son Glenn, his wife Peggy and their children James and David; daughter Mary, her husband Mathew Lo and their children Jeremy and Adrian; son Paul, his wife Marti and their children Jesse and Caitlin, and son-in-law Nick Steele; daughter-in-law Yvonne, her husband Bob Forman and their children Avram and Rosha, and son-in-law Caleb Hurst-Hiller; and several nieces and nephews.   Friends may call 4 to 6 p.m., Friday, at Yoder-Culp Funeral Home, and 2 to 3 p.m., Saturday, at The Meetinghouse at Greencroft, Goshen, where a 3:00 p.m., funeral service will be conducted.   In approximately one year the ashes of Paul and Nancy will be interred together in Pennsville Mennonite Cemetery, Scottdale, Pa.     In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be given to The Mennonite Education Agency/La Junta Mennonite Nursing Scholarship Fund.