November 29, 2001
Contact: Sarah
Maxwell
Director of Media Relations
507.646.4184
Mary Givens Nelson, Professor Emerita at Carleton College, Dies
Northfield, Minn.—Mary Givens Nelson, professor emerita of music at Carleton College, passed away on Wednesday, Nov. 28. She was 81, and a longtime Northfield resident.
Nelson was born Mary Finley Givens on Nov. 12, 1920, in Owensboro, Ky. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music and French from Western College in Oxford, Ohio, and a master’s degree in music theory from the Eastman School of Music.
Before coming to Carleton, she taught at Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas, and at Christian College in Columbia, Mo. From 1943-46, she was a communications and recreation officer in the W.A.V.E.S. Nelson first joined the Carleton faculty in 1947 as a part-time instructor of piano, and was promoted to full professor in 1975. Her husband, William Nelson, was also a member of the music department faculty at Carleton. Mary and William both retired from Carleton in 1984.
Nelson supervised college piano students who gave lessons to children in Northfield. She was a member of the women’s guild and the altar guild and organist for many years at the All Saints Episcopal Church, and a member of the Northfield Arts Guild and the Faculty Women’s Club. She gave many piano recitals, both on campus and in the community. After her retirement, she volunteered at the Community Action Center and continued to run the blood bank at Carleton, as she had for many years.
Nelson is survived by a son, Thomas K. Nelson ’73 of Minneapolis and his wife, Sanna Pedersen; a daughter, Judith A. Nelson, assistant professor of dance at Carleton; a granddaughter, Skye Williams; a brother-in-law, Alan Nelson and his wife, Phyllis Beson Nelson of Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; a sister-in-law, Mary M. Nelson of Erie, Pa.; and a cousin, Virginia Young of Rochester, Minn. Her husband, William E. Nelson, died in 1994.
A funeral will be held at All Saints Episcopal Church in Northfield on Saturday, Dec. 8. Memorials may be directed to the Red Cross.
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