Nancy McGlathery

Mrs. Nancy Judith (Beyer) McGlathery, 86, died in her Champaign family home of over 60 years on April 12, 2026, surrounded in her last days by the love and support of members of her wonderful care team, who provided her with the ability to stay at home in the final years of her life; her family; and some close friends who came to visit from near and far to bid her adieu.

Born in New York City on June 1, 1939, the eldest child of Haim and Rose (Reichman) Beyer. Nancy excelled in school and was the recipient of many accolades along the way. She attended schools in Plainfield, NJ and New Bedford, MA before graduating from the Dana Hall School. She attended Bryn Mawr College, where she received a bachelor's degree cum laude in European history, earning a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship for graduate work in modern European History at Columbia University and a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. After she married James Melville McGlathery of Galveston, TX in June 1963, she earned a master's degree in education from Harvard University.

After moving to the area in 1965, due to her husband’s securing a tenure-track Professorship of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Nancy worked as an educator in both the Rantoul City and Urbana School Districts. She then took time off to raise her two children, ultimately adopting two additional foster children from South Korea, having served as a foster parent to four and as a master foster parent. She returned to education, working part-time in a position in the Champaign Unit 4 School District as a Garden Hills School lunchroom/playground supervisor for many years. She was a very devoted mother and faculty wife and hosted many functions while her husband Jim served as the longtime German Department Head, retiring in Spring 2000. She stood by her husband with great devotion and support for 51 years after he became paraplegic as a result of Guillain-Barre syndrome, and he was confined to a wheelchair, a situation that both Nancy and Jim bore with courage and grace. They went on to advocate for accessibility services for and humane treatment of people with disabilities.

Drawing upon her experience as a foreign exchange student in the Netherlands, she took a profound interest in the welfare of international students here at the University of Illinois, where she donated her time over the years in various capacities to the International Hospitality Committee (IHC), a voluntary service organization associated with the Office of International Student Services (ISSS). Nancy volunteered in the Lending Storeroom, helped lead a Friendship Group, was longtime Coordinator of the International Friends Program, and served on its Board of Directors for many years. She also helped international students in Göttingen, Germany on two separate occasions, when she accompanied her husband on an educational exchange there. In addition, she was a regular English-speaking volunteer at the Wesley Foundation’s Friday International Coffee Hour in Urbana, Illinois.

Quite humble despite all her intellectual and educational accomplishments and attainments, Nancy lived a simple and unpretentious life. A “ray of sunshine,” she had a lovely smile and a wonderful, welcoming, and inclusive sense of humor. Nancy made everyone laugh with her brilliant, quick wit, and sense of self irony, and she laughed along with everyone else. Above all, she possessed a genuine gift for helping everyone she met, and with whom she interacted, to feel accepted, welcomed, loved, and supported. She would quietly take the time to be with people in their greatest times of need.

A devoted mother, she practiced unpreferential treatment with regard to her children. Each of them had a special, unique, and individual relationship with her. Nancy sought to instill in them by example the values of thrift, education, service to others, and a zest for life. In addition, she celebrated diversity and individual integrity and was a passionate, thoughtful champion of social justice and international understanding. The impact of her kind and welcoming nature, especially among the many international students she got to know well, seemed truly incalculable. She even counted the children of many of these families from different cultures as “surrogate grandchildren.”

Among her many other abilities, interests and activities, Nancy excelled in languages, pondered phraseology, and had an inquisitive mind and keen recollection. She was a member of the Illinois Club and the Unitarian Universalist Church in Urbana for over 50 years. She vacationed with her husband in Galveston, Texas in the former family home, the Aiken-McGlathery House, built in 1885, where they attended many social, educational, and religious activities, such as the Ball High School alumni “lunch bunch,” the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Galveston County, and events at Galveston’s Rosenberg Library.

She was preceded in death by her husband, parents, and nephews, Dylan McGlathery Davis and Michael Sean Callaghan, Jr. Surviving her are a sister, Margy Spencer of Jackson, WY and brother, William Beyer of Gainesville, GA; sons: Samuel, Urbana; Daniel (Vivian), Newton, MA; Drew, Dharamshala, India; Ben (Dolores) McGlathery, Forest Park, IL; and daughter, Tonya Brown, Chicago; several nieces and nephews, several grand nephews and nieces, and one grand nephew.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her name to the C-U Schools Foundation or the charity of your choice.

A Celebration of Her Life will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 26, 2026 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana-Champaign, with a reception to follow.