She helped create several of the events. Do you belong to an academic club? She helped start some of those, too. Been on a Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Travels cruise? She has helped lead them as well.
For more than 20 years, Nash has played a valuable role in the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵAA, either as a staff member or a volunteer, service that made her the clear choice to receive the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵAA's 1996 Distinguished Service Award.
Fifteen years ago, Nash was one of about 10 employees at the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Alumni Association. Though she held the title of assistant director, she was more like a jack-of-all-trades, signing up members, helping coordinate the travel program, staging events and working with clubs.
"We were pretty busy," she says. "We did everything."
It's a pretty apt description of Nash herself. Always active as a volunteer in the community, Nash, '51, started serving her alma mater early on, chairing her 25-year and 40-year class reunion committees. She later served on the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵAA Board of Trustees, then had to leave that--to become assistant director of the association in 1979.
Since retiring in 1989, she has barely slowed down, continuing to work behind the scenes for the association. Nash--who helped create such events as Oktoberfest, Dawg Dash and the Husky Hall of Fame banquet--also co-chaired a new event called Dawg Bite, now one of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵAA's mainstays.
"It seems that one way or another, I have been involved with the alumni association," says Nash. And for good reason. "Alumni play a very important role with the University," she says. "Their support of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ--financially, politically, legislatively--is what helps make this University so strong. Maintaining close ties is what the alumni association is all about, and it is a job you can never stop doing."
On June 6, Nash will experience something new--receiving an award from the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵAA. She used to be heavily involved in the award presentations the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵAA would make.
"Now I get to see the other side," she says. "And I couldn't be more honored. Serving the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ and the alumni association has meant a lot to me. And I will continue to keep my hand in it. It is too important to me."--Jon Marmor, Columns Magazine
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