"A Wonderful Standard"

Want to hear a really neat love story?
Back in June of 1952, a mutual friend introduced Mort Thalhimer and Nancy Lee Passloff. OK, so it might not have exactly been love at first sight, but to say there was a quick connection is an understatement.
 
Mr. Thalhimer, who recently celebrated his 95th birthday, picks up the narrative. While age has slowed his pace a bit, it hasn’t dimmed his memory, especially when he reflects upon his life with his wife of 55 years, the mother of his three children, his soulmate.
 
“I was in the motion picture business,” he began. “I spent my working career basically running a chain of theaters (Neighborhood Theatre, Inc.) that stretched from Maryland to Newport News and from Bristol, VA, to the Eastern Shore.
 
“One day, Dave Constine Jr. (his colleague and good friend) came upstairs to the theater office and said, ‘I know this girl who’s in Richmond visiting her grandmother. I grew up with her and her brother. I think you should call her up and have a blind date with her. She’s a lovely girl.
 
“I told him, ‘I’m too old for a blind date.’ He said, ‘I don’t think you’re too old for this blind date.’ He was right.”
 
One morning recently, Mr. Thalhimer related his story to a couple of friends as we sat in the spacious, bright, sun room in his home just off Cary Street Road. The more he spoke, the more enthralled we became.
 
So you took a chance and called her up? I asked.
 
“I took a chance,” he replied. “I did get another couple to go with us. I guess I was feeling a little timid. We went to the Byrd Theater and saw Robin Hood, which was a first-run picture at the time.”
 
When did you realize this relationship was special? I inquired.
 
“Nancy went to Goucher College outside of Baltimore,” he responded. “I made a trip or two up there. She would come to Richmond and visit her grandmother. On Sunday afternoon, I’d say, ‘Nancy, I really enjoyed these dates of ours. How about staying over tonight, and I’ll put you on the early train tomorrow. You’ll be there in time for your classes. We often did that.”
 
Things were definitely getting serious.
        
“In ’52, I drove my parents to New York,” Mr. Thalhimer continued. “They were taking a trip to Europe on the Rotterdam, a Dutch ship. Nancy came into town from Kew Gardens (Long Island, where she lived). We went aboard the ship. After everyone left the stateroom, I embraced her and said, ‘You will marry me, won’t you?’ She said, ‘Yes.’ We did not tell my parents, but my mother suspected something from the way we were looking and acting.”
 
The happy couple eventually broke the news, and Mr. Thalhimer presented his fiancé with an engagement ring one summer day as they sat on the embankment beside the Byrd Park reservoir.
 
“She was so excited she just rolled down the hill,” he recalled.
 
They were married November 22, 1953.
 
This is a really good story, I said. It gets more exciting with every sentence.
 
He smiled, which he did often during our visit, then went on to detail some of the adventures they shared with friends and with their three children, Mort ’73, Leigh ’74, and Richard ’79, all Collegiate graduates.
 
They traveled internationally to destinations as diverse as Italy, Kenya, Portugal, Norway and Sweden, Australia and New Zealand, China, and Israel.
 
Mr. Thalhimer had learned to ski when he was a student at Dartmouth following his wartime service as a Naval aviator and introduced his very reluctant bride to the sport.
 
“I never skied well, but I’d been on skis,” he said. “After we were married, I took Nancy to Davis, WV. We got some skis on her and went up to the top of this small mountain. She just froze. She wouldn’t follow me. I went down and got the head of the ski school to come up, and she followed him to the bottom. After that, she just took off. She became an expert skier.”

For 32 years, the Thalhimer family traveled to Alta Lodge in Utah to indulge their passion.
 
“I was always bringing up the rear,” Mr. Thalhimer said. “They’d have to wait for me to catch up. After I got there, they’d take off again. It was something we did as a family that I think all of them remember with great pleasure.”
 
The Thalhimers also spent much time in Florida where they made many friends and learned to play golf as much for recreation and fun as for the competition.
 
Seems like you and Nancy were a really good team, I said.
 
“We were,” Mr. Thalhimer responded. “She was a very good tennis player too. I loved to play tennis. We just seemed to mesh with everything we did. I was very fortunate.”
 
In addition to supporting her husband’s and their three children’s activities, Mrs. Thalhimer involved herself over the years with a host of civic activities, among them serving on the board of Sheltering Arms Hospital and the Council of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts where she also volunteered as a docent.
 
“She just had a way of being cheerful and greeting people,” Mr. Thalhimer said. “It could be a total stranger, but within a few minutes, it seems like they’d found out what their hobbies were or what business they were in. She enjoyed making friends with new people, whether it was in Richmond or on a cruise or in Florida. She was very comfortable with people.
 
“My wife was a very strong woman in many ways. She lost her mother, father, and brother, all in five years. I never found her weeping about the loss. I’m just amazed at the strength she had when difficulties came along. She was remarkable.”
 
Nancy Thalhimer passed away December 10, 2008, after a courageous battle with brain cancer.
 
In January 2009, the Virginia General Assembly honored her with Joint Resolution No. 757, which cites her passion for family and friends, commitment to her community, and the humanitarian endeavors that defined her life.
 
She left an incredible legacy, which her husband has further honored with the establishment of the Nancy P. Thalhimer Endowment which supports financial assistance for students at Collegiate.
 
What a role model she was, I commented. She certainly set a standard.
 
“A wonderful standard,” Mr. Thalhimer replied.
    -- Weldon Bradshaw

 
Back