GOOD NEIGHBORS: JOHN RENYHART
In Nancy’s Name John Renyhart honors the love of his life by working hard to help others with Alzheimer’s. BY JAMES BLEVINS
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Photo: Steve Floethe
J
ohn Renyhart met his wife, Nancy, at a Sadie Hawkins dance at the State University of New York at Fredonia in 1961. She wasn’t alone at the time and neither was he, but after the dance, someone told John that Nancy wanted to know more about him. One thing led to another and they became an item. “I was a sophomore at that point,” remembers John, now 78. “She was just mentoring as a freshman at college. We completed our degrees and we got married in 1965.” At the time, John worked for nonprofit organizations. Starting in 1964, he worked for the Boy Scouts of America while living with Nancy in the Bronx. They had a son, Charlie, and moved to Syracuse. Five years later, another son, Donald, was born. The Renyhart family would move from New York to Pennsylvania, then to New Jersey—where John began working from the Boy Scouts of America’s national headquarters outside of Trenton—before settling down in Long Island for 25 years. After over two decades in the Scouts, John decided to change careers
in 1985. “At some point I knew I couldn’t advance in scouting,” says John. “So I said, ‘Well, let’s try something else.’” JOHN SHIFTED CAREERS and became executive director of development at Dowling College and director of development at the New York Institute of Technology. He joined United Way as its SVP of marketing and communication in 1987. He was also director of development for the Long Island Museum from 1995 till retiring early in 2004 at the age of 62 after a 40-year career in non-profit management and professional fundraising. “I was pretty much burnt out by that point,” says John with a laugh. Like a lot of people eyeing retire-
OCALA’S GOOD LIFE retirement redefined
ment, John and Nancy had their eyes on Florida, partly because John’s dad, who had Alzheimer’s, lived there, and John wanted to be closer to help care for him. They moved to Ocala on Labor Day in 2006. “We ended up in Ocala Palms Golf and Country Club,” says John. “But that was only one of maybe half a dozen communities that we looked at.” It wasn’t until 2009 that John realized there was something going on with Nancy. Suddenly, her memory wasn’t as sharp as it used to be. “She would forget things,” says John. “She would forget what you had for breakfast. And then, if we were in the car going someplace, she’d say, ‘John, where are we going?’ I’d tell
