Nancy the person - from a former co-worker

I met Nancy the day I started working at ITG in 1993. Actually, I met Nancy the week before the day I started working at ITG. Someone saw fit to invite me to the monthly lunch meeting for ITG's entire Los Angeles office. "All" 16 of them. It would be my first introduction into the very serious world of financial-industry software development. And the topic was… homebrewing. That's right, brewing and bottling your own beer at home. The presenter was Nancy.   

It took about 2 minutes to realize Nancy was incredibly bright. The detail at which she could describe the brewing process - the whys behind the whats and hows - was remarkable. She sounded like a professional brewer slash chemistry professor. But I think she liked to talk more about the failed attempts than the successes. Every success was a good batch of beer. But every failure was a funny story.

Along the way, Nancy was promoted to head of software development for ITG, a title she held for a few years before retiring early at age 40. That group of 16 software technologists exploded to over 200 during her time at the firm. No one worked harder or was more disciplined than Nancy. She owed the firm and her co-workers her best every single day, and she never let us down. As a leader she wanted to connect with everyone on the ever-expanding team. She took up the challenge of memorizing everyone's name and face so she was never unprepared in a meeting or hallway conversation.

THIS is what I think of when I think of Nancy and early-onset Alzheimer’s. At her peak, Nancy had the sharpest brain in the room. She had an ability to educate and entertain with her depth of knowledge, life experiences and storytelling ability. Alzheimer’s has taken a lot of that away, but Nancy is still strong in spirit. She’s not a quitter. Neither are her friends and family.