Nanci Ellen Garon

Nanci Ellen Hertz Garon of Tucson, Arizona passed away on December 3, 2024 of cardiac and respiratory failure subsequent to a broken hip. Nanci was born to Adell Tatkin and Melvin Arthur Hertz on April 17, 1944 in St Paul, Minnesota. She met her future husband, Allan Mayer Garon, at the University of Minnesota in 1962, and they recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.

Nanci graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1966 with a degree in education with emphasis on gifted and talented. Her first teaching job was in a second-grade classroom in Bloomington, Minnesota while Allan was still in graduate school. Over her-thirty-plus year career, she taught gifted and talented elementary, high school and college students in all the additional cities in which she and Allan lived: Pittsburgh, Houston, Dallas and Anchorage. Nanci retired in 1997 and traveled extensively with Allan to international destinations as part of his job. Nanci and Allan moved to Tucson in 2000 after an eight-month tour of the country to decide on a retirement location.

After retirement, Nanci continued her passion for teaching and other volunteer activities. She was president of one women's organization and organized and set up study groups for another. She was an avid reader, a fabulous cook and a life-long learner. She was a super organizer, always planning events from major anniversaries to breakfast groups. She often organized gatherings of friends and family, and she initiated and taught Mahjong classes. She loved to teach Mahjong even more than playing, and one of her groups continued for twenty years.

Nanci is survived by her husband, her daughter Tammi Garon Stein, Tammi's son and daughter, Aaron Stein and Nadia Stein, her sister Sandy Hertz Rosenthal, her sisters-in-law Arlis Garon Grossman and Elaine Rochlin Garon, her Tucson cousin Sally Hertz, her special friend Robin Samlan, her big orange Maine coon cat named Tazz and many other cousins and nieces and nephews. 

She was preceded in death by her parents, her son Jeffrey Stanley Garon, her brother Richard Allen Hertz, her brothers-in-law Lyle David Garon, Robert Allen Rosenthal and Erwin Herschel Grossman and her Tucson cousin Judy Ruben.