Update: Memorial held for John Eric Nelson
This was originally posted in February, 2020. The memorial service postponed twice but was finally held on September 25th in Reston, VA. Here is a YouTube recording of the service. Several classmates were able to attend. Ted Van Dyke and Steve Haworth both spoke (at 16:07 and 22:02, respectively).
Saturday, April 4th, 2020, 11 AM to 12:30 PM EST,
RSVP by June 1: If you can attend, please email John’s daughter, Bergen Nelson, at bergenbnelson@gmail.com by June 1st.
John Eric Nelson died of colorectal cancer on February 5, 2020. He fought it bravely, tenaciously and with optimism. When I last saw him on January 24, we parted with a long-held fist bump and him saying, “It’s not looking good, but I’m not giving up.”
John was an excellent athlete, winning the class of 1969 intramural athlete of the year award and leading the JE Spiders football teams to multiple championships. John even teased Calvin Hill that he had been the best athlete in the class. Not just an athlete, John was always proud that his father had seen written on his admissions folder, “Football not necessary.” Handsome, too, he was very popular with my wife’s Vassar friends, among many others.
He was not always happy at Yale, and freshman and sophomore year we discussed transferring endlessly—he to Stanford. Yet, he became devoted to Yale and served for many years as a stalwart on the reunion committees. At the 50th, he even led the Memorial Service as he was battling his own, eventually fatal, illness.
John had a gift for friendship. He was an integral part of a group of close JE classmates. A sub-set, he, Steve Haworth, Eric Lenck and myself took close to 10 golf vacations over the past 20 some years, including one to the Azores last September. There, he and I defeated Eric and Steve to take the self-styled “JE Open.”
The center of a very loving family, starting with his wife Kim, his children Bergen and Eric, three grandchildren, Harper, Sawyer and Miles, his sister Kathy and her family, it extended even to the parents of his children’s spouses.
Professionally, John marched to a different drummer, to the point of spending two years at the Zen Monastery at Tassajara, CA. He used his outgoing and self-confident personality to develop a career as a consultant, helping disadvantaged neighborhoods get expert financial advice to further their development projects. For many years there was a cartoon on his refrigerator with three bees—the worker bee, the queen bee and the consultant bee.
I was especially fortunate to have had a relationship with John that goes back unbroken for 63 years to our bonding as the second baseman and shortstop on a Northern Virginia Little League team. Many others were also lucky to get to know him, and all who did will always remember his larger than life personality with affection.
John was, indeed, a great guy. Always friendly and interesting with tons of positive energy. That was apparent even to those who just had fleeting interactions with him as I did. Gone far too soon. He will be missed.
Here is Kim Ballad Nelson’s Obit:
“John Eric Nelson, native son of Fairfax County, died peacefully at home in Reston on February 5, from cancer.
John was a natural leader, president of the student body and quarterback of the football team at Groveton High School in Alexandria. He graduated from Yale College in History in 1969 and then taught History at Springfield High School in 1969-70. He received an MA in American Intellectual History from the University of Michigan, where he founded a union of graduate teaching fellows.
Long interested in the study of Buddhism in America, John received lay ordination from the San Francisco Zen Center, spending 2 years at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in Carmel Valley from 1977-1979. He practiced daily meditation for 45 years and embodied compassion as a guiding principle.
Returning East in 1985, John practiced intentional work as an independent consultant for many organizations over his lifetime, most recently as managing partner of Wall Street Without Walls, which created a new form of philanthropy using volunteer expertise in financial technical assistance from professionals to help community development organizations.
He was consultant to the President’s Council for Sustainable Development during the Clinton administration and learned about international “Green Plans” in the Netherlands and worked to apply them in the USA.
He designed and managed the Small Business Opportunity Project for HUD, assisting public housing residents plan and run their own businesses.
He founded the national urban land trust program for the Trust for Public Land in 1975-1977 and later managed the Trees for the City planting program in DC for the Chevrolet-Geo environmental program.
John was a guest lecturer in community development finance at the Georgetown University business school from 2001-2012, and founding President of the William James Foundation promoting the development of socially responsible businesses by young adults, including a nationwide business plan competition among business and graduate schools.
John was Chairman of the Board of Directors for the National Disability Institute in 2015-2016.
Married for 46 (almost 47!) years to Kim Ballard Nelson, also of Fairfax County, he has two grown children and three grandsons.”
I did not know John at Yale but got to know him as a neighbor in Reston VA, where our kids went to the same high school–South Lakes. I always enjoyed the chances to visit with him.
He is missed. I have a canvas poster print in my office of John on the beach when we were at Half Moon Bay. We were celebrating the life of Randy Straff and reminiscing about our years at Yale and beyond.