Nancy Shorney was for several decades a volunteer at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, where she did everything from deliver mail to patients to run the hospital’s Coffee Corner snack shop.
She also was a longtime member of the Wheaton Garden Club and put in time as president of her local PTA.
“I think she had a strong sense of old-fashioned community duty, and I think that by giving her time and efforts to others and helping out, it made her feel like she was doing something worthwhile,” said her son John. “That brought her the most satisfaction.”
A Wheaton resident for more than 50 years, Mrs. Shorney, 79, died Thursday, May 26, at Central DuPage after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage, said her daughter, Cindy Pearson.
Born Nancy Leith, she grew up in suburban Philadelphia and excelled in field hockey at Denison University in Ohio, where she got her bachelor’s degree and met her future husband, George. They were married in 1955.
After moving to Wheaton in 1960, Mrs. Shorney plunged into local activities. She started her volunteer work at Central DuPage in the 1970s and for many years was president of the hospital’s women’s auxiliary, her daughter said.
“She was a social person, and it was a way for her to balance being a stay-at-home mom with helping others and getting involved in the community,” Pearson said.
Over the years, Mrs. Shorney put in more than 7,000 hours with the hospital as a volunteer and showed no signs of slowing down, according to Kurt Wolbrink, the development director of the Central DuPage Health Foundation. She was a member of the hospital’s Founder’s Society, Board of Governors and Chairman’s Club, he said.
“During a recent visit I had with her, she was looking forward to increasing her weekly hours of volunteer service,” Wolbrink said.
Her husband ran Hope Publishing, a Carol Stream-based Christian music publishing business, and she frequently hosted hymn writers visiting from around the world, said her son.
“She would host them in her house and, a lot of times during the day, take hymn writers’ spouses out for some sort of activity while my dad was doing business with hymn writers,” he said.
Her husband retired in 2001, and the couple’s sons continue to run the business.
Mrs. Shorney is also survived by two other sons, Herb and Scott; a sister, Pat Pillion; and seven grandchildren.
Visitation will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. Thursday, at Williams-Kampp Funeral Home, 430 E. Roosevelt Road, Wheaton. A funeral service will be held at 3 p.m. Friday at Fourth Presbyterian Church, 126 E. Chestnut St., Chicago.
