In Memory of Nancy G. Michener

Nancy G. Michener, a 51 year-old resident of Pasadena, CA, passed away on June 16th following a courageous seven-year battle with lung cancer. She spent her formative years in Connecticut, graduating with distinction from high school in 1973. She attended Colby College for two years before transferring to the Univ. of Connecticut, where she graduated cum laude with a B.A. degree in English. For nearly thirty years, she pursued a distinguished career in real estate appraising, earning the coveted SRA designation, founding her own appraisal business, and later working for City National Bank as an assistant vice president. Nancy married college sweetheart Stuart Michener in 1979, whereupon they moved west to Denver, where they lived happily for nearly nine years. In 1984, Nancy gave birth to their first and only child, Alison. They relocated to Arcadia, California in 1990, where she was deeply committed to Alison's school and extra-curricular activities, especially Girl Scouting, where she served as a troop leader for many years. A lifetime non-smoker and healthy, athletic person*, Nancy was first diagnosed with lung cancer in 2000. During the ensuing years, she endured two major surgeries, a lobectomy and chest wall resection; two regimens of platinum-based chemotherapy, including Taxol-Carboplatin and Gemzar-Taxotere; focused radiation therapy to the thorax; more than one year of the targeted epidermal growth factor receptor therapy, Iressa; and finally, recent treatment with the newly approved targeted therapy, Alimta. Through it all, she faced the disease and countless treatment side effects with unmatched grace and determination. In her final years, she became an effective, impassioned advocate for lung cancer awareness through her role as co-chair of the California chapter of the Lung Cancer Alliance. Her efforts helped precipitate numerous State and local government lung cancer proclamations, as well as a Congressional resolution pronouncing lung cancer a public health priority. Tragically, Nancy was recently predeceased by her beloved daughter Alison, who perished in a rafting accident in Peru. She is survived by her husband, Stuart, her parents, Fred and Ginger Groh, and her brothers Steven, Richard, and David, and her in-laws, Dick and Alice Michener. Services were held on Saturday June 24th at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, California.

*Nancy's pre-cancer amateur athletic accomplishments were impressive: 1) cross-country ski racing including the famous Birkebeiner Ski Marathon in Wisconsin and the Adirondack Ski Marathon in New York; 2) bicycling including the annual 103-mile long Solvang Century ride and the Great Western Bicycle Rally; and 3) extensive hiking and mountain climbing in the Sierra Nevada and Colorado Rockies including an ascent of 14,255 foot-high Long's Peak, the tallest summit in Rocky Mountain National Park.