Social justice advocate, environmentalist, community builder, Nancy Nordhoff mourned

Published 1:30 am Friday, January 9, 2026

By KATE POSS

Special to The Record

For many who live on South Whidbey, Nancy Nordhoff’s legacy is felt and seen in the many projects she supported. From Hedgebrook’s global community of visionary women writers to the Goosefoot nonprofit to building affordable housing, the woman’s generosity and focused vision helped give a hand up to many and created a sense of place worth being a part of.

A noted philanthropist and environmentalist, Nordhoff was designated a Women’s History Month honoree by the National Women’s History Month Project and even has her own Wikipedia page. She passed away Jan. 7 at age 93.

“I was thinking of Nancy this morning,” said a teary Rose Hughes at the Goosefoot office on the day after Nordhoff’s passing.

Hughes is managing director of Island Roots Housing, a Goosefoot-incubated program that has led to the creation of Generations Place, now under construction, and eventually providing housing for workforce families.

“I visited my chiropractor and mentioned Nancy’s passing. He told me she helped him get funding to buy his home,” she said.

The Goosefoot staff sent an email letter remembering Nordhoff’s legacy Jan. 8.

“The staff and Board of Directors of Goosefoot Community Fund are deeply saddened by the passing of Nancy Skinner Nordhoff yesterday,” the email stated. “As co-founder of Goosefoot in 1999, she instilled her personal values of tenacity, humility, vision and generosity — ones we strive to hold up in our work today. When faced with difficult decisions, there is a reason we often ask ourselves, ‘What would Nancy do?’”

What did Nancy do? The unassuming grandmotherly-looking woman could be seen shopping at the Star Store in Langley wearing plaid shirts and saying hello, just like the other locals who shopped there. Nordhoff also knew how to raise funds and create South Whidbey nonprofits that benefit the community, the environment and education.

She founded the Goosefoot nonprofit with a savvy land-use attorney friend, Linda Moore.

According to various stories in The Record, one of the first things Goosefoot did was buy homes slated for demolition and have them moved to available land. A Greenbank family, for instance, was the first recipient of a cottage that was going to be torn down. It was cut in pieces and transported by flatbed truck to the family’s property where it housed a grateful family of five.

This part of Goosefoot ended after the 13th home was transferred to a new location. Goosefoot bought the 100-year-old Bayview Cash Store in 1999 and restored it to new splendor while keeping the building’s historic character intact. Now, the popular building on Bayview Road hosts the Taproom and Japonica restaurants, a hair salon, along with the offices of the Whidbey Environmental Action Network. There are street dances held in the summer that attract hundreds. Goosefoot also moved a 1914 Sears House kit home from Greenbank Farm to its current location housing Goosefoot offices on Bayview Road.

“The subsequent renovation of both historic buildings by Goosefoot was not only about land and preservation, but about local economic development,” the Goosefoot email said of Nordhoff. “She realized that by restoring the vitality to Bayview corner, many more local businesses would have a place to thrive, and the area could remain a hub for economic development and social connection on South Whidbey for generations to come.”

Besides Bayview corner and the Sears Kit home renovations, Goosefoot also bought the former Casey’s Red Apple/Sebo’s Do It Center strip mall shopping center ar Highway 525 at Bayview Road. Goosefoot is a landlord to 17 tenants, all within Bayview Corner and Bayview Center.

“When Nancy and fellow Goosefoot co-founder Linda Moore were approached in 2003 regarding listing of the property…they saw another opportunity for Goosefoot to support local economic development,” notes the Goosefoot email. “Bayview Center, a deteriorating strip mall might have gone to a developer interested in building storage units or condos. Instead, they envisioned keeping the property for locally owned businesses providing necessary goods for residents of our rural community.”

Renamed Goosefoot Community Grocer, the store employs 70 people and returns net profits to the community via a “Roundup for Charity” program that benefits nonprofits such as Mother Mentors, South Whidbey School Farms, Meals on Wheels, Island Roots Housing and Friends of Friends Medical Support Fund. It has contributed to the Essential Needs Program, partnering with the Whidbey Community Foundation to assist those who need help with housing, food and medical care. Proceeds to the nonprofits average more than $2.5 million a year since the program’s inception.

Wikipedia notes that Nordhoff was born in 1932 and raised near the University of Washington neighborhood of Laurelhurst by her parents Winnifred and Gilbert Skinner. Her maternal grandmother, Jeannette Skinner, was one of the founders of the Seattle Children’s Hospital. The youngest of three siblings, she came from a family of philanthropists.

By the time she was 5, her parents divorced. Nordhoff later earned a degree in chemistry from Mt. Holyoke College and became a small plane pilot, flying a “single engine Piper Tripacer across the country during her early days of philanthropy from 1955-1957.” She married Arthur Nordhoff in 1957 and had three children. Philanthropy was her vocation from the time she graduated.

Wikipedia notes: “After graduating school she dove into philanthropy. She worked with the United Way and the Skinner Family Foundation. In 1976, she served on the founding board of the Pacific Northwest Grantmakers Forum, later renamed Philanthropy Northwest.”

At the age of 50, Nordhoff bought a van and traveled across the country. She would divorce Arthur and later marry Lynn Hays and move to Whidbey Island. In 1986, she built and founded the now famous Hedgebrook Writers Retreat on Milman Road with her friend, Sheryl Feldman. It has hosted more than 2,000 alumnae writers, including feminist Gloria Steinem, cofounder of Ms Magazine; Karen Joy Fowler, author of a number of novels such as “We are All Completely Beside Ourselves”; Erica Bauermeister, who wrote a number of novels, including “The School of Essential Ingredients”; and Ruth Ozeki, whose work includes “A Tale for the Time Being.”

A former Hedgebrook resident, Helen Frost, thanked Nordhoff.

“My time at Hedgebrook in 1990 led to the first doors opening to me as a writer,” she wrote. “I am so grateful to have known her. Sail on, beautiful friend. The ripples of your life will spread to all eternity.”

In honoring Nordhoff’s legacy, the Hedgebrook website notes, “Nancy Nordhoff, one of Hedgebrook’s beloved founders, whose enormous philanthropic efforts went to make this world a better, kinder, greener, smarter, more equitable place, a place where women’s voices are heard and celebrated, died yesterday in her home on Whidbey Island.”

Hedgebrook offered a comment from Hays.

“She died peacefully at home in her bed, surrounded by flowers and candles, family and friends, and attended by our wonderful Tibetan lama, Dza Kilung Rinpoche,” she said.

Nordhoff is survived by her children, Chuck, Grace and Carolyn, her grandchildren, great-grandchild and the many nonprofit organizations and efforts she created, inspired and supported, Hedgebrook noted.

Besides Goosefoot and Hedgebrook, Nordhoff donated funds to build the downtown park in Langley at the corner of Second Street and Anthes Avenue. She funded restoration of an old farmhouse at the Whidbey Institute, donated 24 acres of wetlands for salmon restoration, supported the Whidbey Camano Land Trust acquisitions and helped with renovations at the Greenbank Farm.

Both Goosefoot and Hedgebrook newsletters report more news in the days to come.