Caroline Steinman Nunan
Caroline Steinman Nunan, a newspaperman's daughter and heralded benefactor whose love of the arts and community guided her philanthropic efforts for more than half a century in Lancaster County, died Sunday evening.
She had been stricken July 21 while visiting her daughter's home in Norwich, Vt., and died at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. She was 85.
"I think the city cries tonight," Peter Seibert, former president of the Heritage Center of Lancaster County, said late Sunday upon hearing of Nunan's death.
"There is going to be so much celebration of her life, and rightly so, but I'm so sad for Lancaster, because she was a guiding light.
"I'm not sure Lancaster will ever see the likes of her again," Seibert said.
One of three daughters of the late newspaper publisher Col. James Hale Steinman, Nunan was a director of Steinman Enterprises, which includes Lancaster Newspapers Inc., which is the owner of the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era, Sunday News, Lancaster Farming and Lancaster County Weeklies.
Other Steinman Enterprises with which she was involved are the Intelligencer Printing Co., Delmarva Broadcasting Co. with radio stations in Delaware and Maryland, and Steinman Park Restaurant Inc. She was a partner in Steinman Development Co., owner of coal and gas lands in Virginia and Pennsylvania.
She was also the chairwoman of the James Hale Steinman Foundation, a private foundation created in December 1951 for the purpose of providing grants to tax-exempt nonprofit organizations, primarily those serving the citizens of Lancaster County.
At the time of her death, Nunan was a trustee emeritus of Franklin & Marshall College, a board member of the Lancaster Summer Arts Festival and a director of the Heritage Center of Lancaster County.
Seibert said Nunan was the last founding member of the Heritage Center's board who was still on the board, and "she didn't want to step down … and no one wanted her to" because of her knowledge and dedication.
She "didn't want to be thrust into the limelight," Seibert noted. "I have worked with a lot of people who would do anything to get that spotlight, and she wasn't like that.
"I don't think that kind will come down the pike again."
Nunan is widely credited with helping to shape a thriving cultural climate here through her tireless volunteerism, generous charitable giving and remarkable fundraising capabilities, friends and family said.
And yet those achievements belied her modest nature. Her leadership style has been described as "quiet, unseen and effective."
"Carrie was a gracious and generous lady who gave so much of her time, tireless energy and treasure to so many organizations in the Lancaster community," said John M. Buckwalter, chairman of Steinman Enterprises.
"Her friendliness, kindness and warmth will be missed by all of us who knew her. She leaves a tremendous void," Buckwalter said.
Former Franklin & Marshall College President John Fry said of Nunan in 2007: "This woman is incredibly self-effacing. It's one of her great characteristics."
He recalled Sunday how he felt when first meeting her, like "the most important person in Lancaster" went out of her way to make him feel welcome.
"So humble, so gracious, and so friendly," Fry said.
Nunan was a founder and past president of the Lancaster Summer Arts Festival, the free festival of visual and performing arts that has grown in popularity since its inception in 1963.
Gail Hillard, the festival's longtime secretary/treasurer, said she "can't think of anyone who has done more to advance local arts" than Nunan.
"I just don't know what we will all do without her. … She just had a way of bringing people together," Hillard said.
Nunan was also a founding member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Music and received the nonprofit cultural landmark's "Director's Award" in 1993.
Nunan contributed to the Fulton Opera House's Youtheatre program, which provides programs for at-risk, disabled and disadvantaged teens.
In 2005, she helped bring the Classical Music for Urban Kids program to the Crispus Attucks auditorium during the Summer Arts Festival.
In April of this year, Nunan described her reasons for supporting so many charitable causes after receiving the Outstanding Leadership and Service in Arts for Youth Award from Gov. Ed Rendell.
"My contribution to the success of any of these organizations came from my belief in the benefit each organization could bring to our community," Nunan said, "and it came from the heart."
Asked by a reporter recently to name one thing about herself that most people wouldn't know, she responded: "I count my blessings every day that I live in Lancaster County."
Nunan's legendary philanthropic efforts extended far beyond the arts, into historic preservation, public health, education and the environment.
She was a life member of the Lancaster County Conservancy and was given the conservancy's Partnership Award, its most prestigious honor, in 1999.
"There are still a lot of wonderful places in the world," she said at the time, describing how Lancaster County is one of them. "I think I'm very lucky."
That same year, Franklin & Marshall College named its campus, which is a designated arboretum, the Caroline Steinman Nunan Arboretum at Franklin & Marshall College.
Fry, asked about the decision at the time, said it was an easy choice. "It took about five seconds," Fry said, "and Carrie's name popped into my head."
He recalled Sunday that she was modest about accepting the honor, telling the F&M president, "Maybe you should do this for someone else. … You know I don't need this recognition."
Fry cited Nunan's "extraordinary record of civic contributions to the Lancaster area, and she has had tremendous influence in shaping the modern environmental, cultural and educational nature of the community in which her family has played such a major role for generations."
Fry commended Nunan's oversight of the development of the gardens of her childhood home, Conestoga House, into a magnificent showcase of annual, perennial and tropical flowering plants.
The former F&M president recalled Sunday that "for all of the celebration of her family and what she did, at the core she was the most humble, decent and friendly person, always very approachable."
Fry called her "the first to help and the last to take credit. When there was something that needed to be done, she would be there."
Nunan's numerous board memberships included the American Red Cross, which she served for 15 years as a volunteer at Lancaster General Hospital, logging more than 2,000 hours of service as a Gray Lady.
She also served on the boards of the Demuth Foundation, Fulton Bank, where she was the first woman director, Planned Parenthood of the Susquehanna Valley, Hospice of Lancaster County, Lancaster Country Day School and Lancaster Symphony Orchestra. She was a past trustee of Lancaster General Hospital.
She was also a charter member of Rock Ford Foundation, the organization that rescued the home of Colonial war hero Gen. Edward Hand.
Nunan's list of achievements runs long.
She was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from F&M in 2003. It was a historic occasion, as she was the only daughter of an honorary degree recipient to be honored similarly in her own right.
Later, in May of 2009, she received an honorary degree from the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design and, in 2010, won the honorary alumnus award from Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology.
She was also a member of the Lancaster Farmland Trust's "Founders Society" and won an honorary lifetime membership to the Penn Laurel Girl Scout Council. The Pennsylvania Dutch Council Boy Scouts of America honored her with the "Distinguished Citizen Award" in May 1996.
She received the "Service to Mankind Award" from the Sertoma Club in 1983, and the John A. Jarvis Medal for Distinguished Service from Country Day School in 1998.
Nunan was named a "Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania" and received the "Red Rose City of Lancaster Award" from Mayor Albert Wohlsen in 1979.
She and her sister, Beverly R. "Peggy" Steinman, were inducted into the Central Penn Business Hall of Fame in 2008 and received the Benjamin Franklin Award for Excellence from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association in 2009.
Nunan was a graduate of the Shippen School for Girls in Lancaster, the Greenwood School in Maryland and the Katherine Gibbs School in New York.
She was the daughter of the late James Hale and Louise Tinsley Steinman.
She is survived by one sister, Beverly R. "Peggy" Steinman, of Lancaster; two daughters, Carrie Nunan Hill, of Lancaster and Louise Nunan Taylor, wife of William Punch Taylor III of Norwich, Vt.; and three grandchildren, Jennifer Louise Taylor, Elizabeth Duncan Taylor and Thomas Hale Hill.
Nunan's marriage in 1950 to Thomas Richard Nunan Jr. ended in divorce.
Nunan was preceded in death by a sister, Louise Steinman Ansberry, who died in March of 2008 at the age of 85.
Peggy Steinman on Sunday called her sister "a wonderful person and a wonderful mother to her family.
"She was a true Lancastrian, and she wanted anything done for Lancaster that could possibly be done."
Willis Shenk, retired board chairman of Lancaster Newspapers Inc., agreed that Nunan "was very, very devoted to her family and her community."
But in all of her work with groups in the Lancaster community, Shenk and others emphasized Sunday, Nunan worked actively instead of just lending her name to an organization.
"It was not a matter of vanity to have her name out every place," Shenk said. "She actually went to all of the meetings and was actively involved."
Thomas Hills Cook of the Richard C. von Hess Foundation called Nunan "a beacon to everyone in Lancaster, and we are all going to feel her loss tremendously. She was absolutely an inspiration to all of us."
Said the Summer Arts Festival's Hillard, "She had such a personal touch, and an ability to reach out and make people feel at ease.
"There are many people who can do great things for a community, but they just don't have that same wonderful personality."