Meet Your Neighbor
Nancy Newhouse
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER
Age: 62

PHOTO BY ROB BENCHLEY

Likes most about Nantucket:

The dichotomy of people with a summer and year-round community and how they interact and support one another, and how aware of nature people are here.

Likes least about Nantucket:

The people who come but don't take care of this island treasure.

Favorite TV show:

"The Closer"

In 2002 Nancy Newhouse published "We Are Nantucket," a book of interviews she did with long-standing islanders. In 2004 she published a second version called "Voices of the Village," which was interviews with 'Sconset residents.

"I walk a lot and saw all the changes happening on Nantucket and all the things being torn down," she said of her inspiration for the books. "If you don't own it, you can't save it, so I decided to get the stories from people of what Nantucket used to be like and conserve those."

On Sunday, it was Newhouse's turn to be on the answering end of an interview, supervised by 14-year-old Mo, a Cairn Terrier.

Newhouse was born in Norfolk, Va. When she was six months old her parents, Alan and Virginia Newhouse, moved to Bellaire, Texas but spent every summer on Nantucket, where her mother was a fourth generation of the Sharp family. Newhouse spent the last two years of high school at Marymount Secondary School in Tarrytown, N.Y., and majored in history at Rosemont College in Rosemont, Pa. After graduating in 1968, she was a volunteer teacher for a year in St. Croix, then moved to Washington, D.C. where for 21 years she taught English and history in grades four to nine at two private schools.

In 1970, she married for the first time and raised her son, Alan. Newhouse moved permanently to the island in 1991 after taking a year off to travel and trek through New Zealand, Nepal and Ireland. When she first moved here, Newhouse was on the Finance Committee for three years and worked for a year-and-a-half at Educational Management Network as a search consultant for higher education, assisting colleges and universities to link with professionals who would best fit and serve their institutions.

"What I loved about that job was that you were matching people up in positions that offered them greater challenges," she said.

She left EMN to become the Community Relations and Development Director at Nantucket Cottage Hospital, a fitting affiliation considering that her great-grandfather, Dr. Benjamin Sharp, was a founder of the original hospital and in 1911 became its first president. Newhouse was in the hospital position from 1993 to 1997, during which time she assisted in bringing the Boston Pops to Nantucket, a summer concert now in its 12th year and a major hospital fundraiser.

Matching people with organizations is something Newhouse is adept at accomplishing. She said she feels she has contributed to the local community by finding and encouraging summer residents and year-rounders to take part on boards where they could find personal satisfaction and be productive for the organization, particularly the Nantucket Atheneum and the Nantucket Conservation Foundation. Newhouse also helped launch the Atheneum's annual Cold Turkey Plunge fundraiser and assisted in convincing the Nantucket Yacht Club board to allow non-members of the club to participate in Saturday races, opening the events to more competition and fun for all involved.

"It's all part of my networking to get people together. People are so fascinating," she said.

When Newhouse left the hospital position she began caring for her elderly, ailing mother. In 2000, she married Ken Holdgate and started interviewing people for her first book. She and Ken were on the founding board of Nantucket Community Sailing. Newhouse remains involved with local organizations, serving on the board of the Hospital Thrift Shop and the board of the Sankaty Golf and Beach Club.

"I'm trying to decide what my next project will be," she said, not content to sit still too long.

Newhouse enjoys reading, golfing ("or trying to"), gardening, biking, going to the beach with Ken, spending time with friends and especially time with her grandsons Hayden and Carsen. Her "bucket list" of things she wants to do before she is incapacitated include traveling to Prague and St. Petersburg, and taking her grandchildren on the Orient Express.

A little less likely, but still on her list is to be a radio talk show host because she loves interviewing people. There is one more thing.

"They say you should have a child, plant a tree, write a book and build a house. I have never built a house. Those are all the things I think would be fun to do." I