This is the third of an eight-part series profiling the 2016 Outstanding Women of Clinton County. Tickets for the luncheon event — to be held at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, March 5 at the Roberts Centre — are $25 (cash or check accepted; make check payable to “OWCC”). Reservations can be made at the Wilmington News Journal, 761 S. Nelson Ave., Wilmington, OH 45177. The News Journal’s office hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. If you have any questions, please call 937-382-2574. Reservations will be accepted through March 1. Julie Isphording will be the guest speaker. Julie ran the first ever women’s Olympic Marathon in 1984; she is an award-winning syndicated radio host, national keynote speaker and magazine columnist.
Though Clinton County residents of all ages and from all walks of life have benefited from the selfless outreach of this gentle, soft-spoken woman, her influence extends far beyond this county — to many parts of the United States, to Cuba, to Belize, and to Africa.
Nancy Dunaway McCormick, an inductee of the Outstanding Women of Clinton County class of 2016, is a talented musician, artist, teacher, and minister who continues to use her special gifts of listening and involvement to help others discover their own gifts, and to offer the encouragement that helps them be the best they can be.
Most of all, she embodies the best of the Quaker spirit — a friend to all and a spreader of peace.
Born in Minneapolis, McCormick earned a B.A. in social work from Wilmington College, fulfilling her clinical work in Belize, Central America. While in the ministry in Tennessee, she worked closely with residents of an economically depressed area, furnishing transportation to doctor appointments and grocery stores, assisting in a daycare for the mentally handicapped, and visiting isolated shut-ins and the chronically ill.
With her husband Mike, McCormick serves as minister to Springfield Friends and Chester Friends, and is active in the United Society of Friends Women and Friends Disaster (National Outreach). An active volunteer with the Salvation Army, Quaker Knoll Camp, and Your Father’s Kitchen (since its beginning), she is also on the HOPE House steering committee and the board of directors of the Clinton County Homeless Shelter.
As a county “guardian ad litem” for the past six years, she advises the court on the best interests of children immersed in difficult family situations. She is a well-known visitor to Cape May and other local facilities for the elderly, where she routinely conducts church services and celebrates special holiday events.
McCormick coordinates annual mission trips to the impoverished South Side of Belize City to assist with the local Friends School, and has made ten such trips over the past 20 years. She has participated in a peace team to Burundi, Africa; a “building bridges” trip to establish relations with Friends in Cuba; and a work team to Kenya to help marginalized widows rebuild their lives — as well as their actual homes. She has also led student groups to Tennessee to help repair and build housing for the elderly and handicapped.
A member of Wilmington’s Cantabile Choir, McCormick has recorded three song CDs and has coauthored a book of inspirational writings and paintings (with musical CD) entitled God is all around. Her personal sense that “God is all around,” she says, is never so strongly felt as when she sings to comfort the sick.
She makes it a point to paint a mural every place she lives, to leave behind a little of herself. In Belize, she painted it inside the Quaker School, “to add cheer for the children.” Indeed, she has left so much of herself and her friendly cheer wherever her ministry of compassion has called her to serve.
