Caroline Nash, 89, a microbiologist and researcher
Caroline Barker Buell Nash, a lifelong science enthusiast from North Andover, died May 1 after a brief illness at Holbrook Health Center at Piper Shores in Scarborough, Maine. She was 89.
Mrs. Nash was born and raised in North Andover on her family's 400-acre farm, which had been established in 1642 by her ancestors and is still in the family.
Relatives said Mrs. Nash had pleasant memories from her work on the farm, where she drove tractors and "did all those things that boys would do," said her daughter, Deborah Molander of Yarmouth, Maine.
"She enjoyed the hard work and got a lot of satisfaction from it," Molander said. "She just appreciated that life on the farm was hard work, but it was very satisfying and gratifying to her."
Mrs. Nash graduated from Johnson High School in North Andover in 1937 and from Jackson College, the women's division of Tufts University, in 1941 with a bachelor's in biology. Mrs. Nash entered Wellesley College for research and graduate studies, which were interrupted by World War II.
In 1943, Mrs. Nash married Robert P. Buell, a Navy pilot and a Tufts classmate. While Buell was airborne on antisubmarine patrol in 1944, his carrier was torpedoed, and he was later declared lost at sea.
After her husband's death, Mrs. Nash returned to Wellesley and conducted research in microbiology. She also did research at Harvard University for the US Army Quartermaster Corps, which supplied materials and equipment to the Army.
The Army had discovered that fungi were destroying soldiers' uniforms in the tropics. Since Mrs. Nash had studied mycology, the study of fungi, she helped try to find ways to prevent the fungi from ruining the uniforms.
In addition to her research, Mrs. Nash took graduate courses at Wellesley and Harvard, and earned a master's degree in biology in 1948 from Wellesley.
While doing research at Harvard, she met Nathaniel Nash, whom she married in 1948. After living in Providence, North Andover, and Goffstown, N.H., the couple settled in 1955 in the Hamilton-Wenham area, where they lived until 2002, when they moved to Piper Shores.
Mrs. Nash devoted most of her life to raising and supporting her family. In the 1960s, she became an associate professor of biology at Gordon College in Wenham, where she taught and did research for about three years.
"She had a very scientific mind, and she always enjoyed science and nature, which I think came from her growing up on the farm," her daughter said.
Mrs. Nash served as a trustee and corporate member of the Boston Biomedical Research Institute, which promotes the understanding, treatment, and prevention of specific human diseases. Mrs. Nash also performed volunteer work for the Children's Friend and Family Services in Salem, the Hamilton-Wenham Public Library, and the Wenham Village Improvement Society.
She was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society; the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and the Tufts and Harvard chapters of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society.
Relatives recalled Mrs. Nash's sincere interest when meeting new people.
"She had a wonderful smile and a wonderful, engaging way with people," her daughter said. "She wasn't interested in talking about herself. She was more interested in finding out about that person."
Mrs. Nash's sister Jean died in 1935, and her sister Marcia in 2004. Her son, Nathaniel, died in 1996, in an airplane crash in Croatia, along with more than 30 other people, including US Secretary of Commerce Ronald Brown.
In addition to her husband of 60 years and her daughter, Mrs. Nash leaves a brother, George Barker Jr. of North Andover, and five grandchildren. Services have been held.
