Nancy Roberts’ people skills served her well when Leo Burnett asked her to set up a market research workshop in Glen Ellyn in the early 1960s.
Years later, those same skills served refugees around the world even better, loved ones said.
Mrs. Roberts began her activism as a fair-housing advocate in DuPage County in the 1960s, but she later focused on humanitarian causes overseas, helping people in refugee camps in Asia and Africa, and most recently in Pakistan, following the Sept. 11 attacks.
And while her work at refugee camps drew praise, it was what she did when she returned home that set her apart, family members said.
“She’d tell firsthand stories about people she’d gotten to know, particularly children and orphans, whose lives and futures were in the balance,” said her son David. “She’d inspire her friends and others to take action. She’d encourage them to help in any way they could.”
Mrs. Roberts, 80, of DeKalb and Atlantis, Fla., died of heart failure Thursday, March 13, at JFK Medical Center in Atlantis.
Born in Sycamore, Mrs. Roberts spent most of her childhood in Rochelle, where her father worked as a pharmacist.
In 1947, after completing her junior year at the University of Illinois, Mrs. Roberts married E. Mason Bittinger, who died in 1997. The couple settled in Glen Ellyn and had four children before their divorce in 1972. She married her second husband, Tom Roberts Jr., in 1974, and moved to DeKalb.
While living in Glen Ellyn in the 1960s, Mrs. Roberts worked for the Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago, opening its first suburban research workshop, family members said.
“A neighbor of ours, an executive with Leo Burnett, recognized her strong people skills and hired her to do market research,” her son said. “She was the type of person who could get a wall to talk.”
About that same time, Mrs. Roberts joined the Glen Ellyn Council on Human Relations, where she volunteered as an advocate for fair housing.
“There weren’t many minority families living in town back then, but my mother knew them all well,” her son said.
For the last 25 years, Mrs. Roberts served as a relief worker with the Minneapolis-based American Refugee Committee. She visited refugee camps in Thailand and Rwanda, and traveled to Pakistan in 2002 to aid Afghan refugees.
“Traveling with Nancy was like traveling with an angel,” said Karen Elshazly, a former director of foreign programs at the American Refugee Committee who accompanied Mrs. Roberts on several visits to refugee camps. “Children were being born and raised in the camps we visited, and she’d cater to their special needs. She’d do whatever she could to help, bringing them to hospital wards or just taking the time to sit with them. She always stepped up to the plate.”
During that time, Mrs. Roberts opened her home in DeKalb to many newly arrived refugees from around the world. In the early 1980s, she provided shelter and cared for three young Vietnamese girls, family members said.
“All three women are U.S. citizens now,” her son said. “They’ve completed their educations and have become very talented musicians.”
In addition to her husband and son, Mrs. Roberts is also survived by two sons, Tom Bittinger and Steve Bittinger; a daughter, Betsy Waters; two stepsons, Tom and Mike; two stepdaughters, Cathy Suskin and Shawn; a brother, David Barker; and 17 grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday at Mayfield Congregational Church, 28405 Church Rd., Sycamore.
