Alumni Gazette

Widow of September 11th Victim Remembered

Taylor

A week after her husband, Kip, was killed at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, Nancy Melvin Taylor ’86N wondered whether he, a member of a military family, would want to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. “[I]t seems to be the logical choice,” she wrote in a note to friends that is now posted on a Web site dedicated to his memory. “I think he would be okay with that.”

On December 29, 2003, a little more than two years after her husband’s remains were buried at Arlington, Taylor, too, was buried there. After a long battle with breast cancer, Taylor died November 18 at the age of 39.

She leaves behind two sons, 4-year-old Dean Ross, and 2-year-old John Luke, who was born one month after his father died when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, where Kip, a lieutenant colonel in the Army, worked.

“She would never feel sorry for herself, at least not outwardly,” says Christine Joor Mitchell ’86, a classmate at Rochester who had been friends with Taylor since they first met in high school in Syracuse. “The boys gave her strength and support and the reason to go on despite all that had happened to her.”

Taylor, who later earned an M.B.A. at Syracuse University, was an All-American field hockey player at Rochester—the only Yellowjacket to hold that distinction—while an undergraduate pursuing a degree in nursing. She holds school records for most goals in a single season (17) and most career goals (50).

During Meliora Weekend last October, Taylor was inducted into the College’s Department of Athletics and Recreation Hall of Fame.

“Nancy was one of the best offensive players we’ve ever had on any of our teams,” says Jane Possee, an administrator in the Department of Athletics and Recreation who was field hockey coach when Taylor was a student. “She led the team through her excellence.”

After her husband’s death, Taylor set up an online memorial fund—www.kiptaylorfund.com—that is dedicated to helping military couples receive in vitro fertilization treatments and that also provides a scholarship for ROTC students at Northern Michigan University, Kip’s alma mater.

Both the Taylors’ children were conceived with the help of in vitro procedures, and Taylor thought setting up a fund for other couples was an excellent way to honor his memory, friends say.

“She was very focused on Kip’s fund,” Mitchell says. “The boys and the fund are his legacy.”

The children have been living with family members since their mother’s death, but the family is keeping details private to avoid a crush of well-intentioned supporters. Mitchell says Taylor was a private person who struggled to make sure her sons had a normal life, away from the publicity surrounding their father’s death.

“She felt as if she needed to keep some normalcy for the boys,” Mitchell says.

Contributions in Taylor’s memory can be made to the Kip P. Taylor Memorial Fund at www.kiptaylorfund.com, and to Rochester’s field hockey progam, University of Rochester, Gift Office, P.O. Box 270032, Rochester, NY 14627-0032.